


The Crown Sings

by IGotNothin



Series: Freelancer [1]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: AI- Gavin, AI- Jack, AI- Michael, AI- Ray, AI- Ryan, Ah AI au, Freelancer- Geoff, Freelancer- Lindsay, Mentions of other characters - Freeform, rvb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-02
Updated: 2015-03-15
Packaged: 2018-02-23 20:14:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 63,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2554151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IGotNothin/pseuds/IGotNothin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He didn't volunteer for this. He never expected to be stuck, in the middle of nowhere, listening to five AI screaming into his head. He didn't expect it, but he probably should have.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Greed of One Man

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based on the AU by raysnarvaezjr.tumblr.com

The news of Georgia’s disappearance had spread through the base like wildfire. It hadn’t been only a week, before the Program was alight with speculation involving the green armored soldier. The Freelancer had seemed to fade out of existence one day, and no one had any idea where he had gone. He had been on a mission one moment, and the next, he was gone, with no record of anything.

There was a question of where he could of gone, why he wasn’t reporting back, and even why he had gone. The only news that they had received was a report from Utah about a penny.

It did not turn out to be a very helpful report.

It had not been very long, before the Counselor organized a search for his agent. Georgia wasn’t important enough for the main agents to handle, but the less valued soldiers were gathered, and told to find Georgia, and bring him back, at all costs.

Agent Alabama had been among the first that the Counselor had gone to.

That was why he was currently in the middle of a pile of wreckage, way too far from any sort of society to be safe. If he made a mistake, help was not incoming. It was a simple fact of life that he had come to terms with a long time ago.

It had been years, and he was still looking for the armor of an agent that had very little chance of being alive. It wasn’t the life that he had expected, after he had been drafted. 

It didn’t matter to him. This was the job that he had applied for, when he had been forced into the army. He was not going to abandon that, just because he was scared of a little wreckage. Even if he had been there for longer than he should have been.

Looking back on it, he should have given up on the military, when Project Freelancer had fallen. He should have went along with York and Wyoming, and walked away. No one would have blamed him. No none would have tried to stop him, either. He had served his years. Things would have turned out so much better, if he had left.

Instead, he stumbled through piles of metal, searching for anything that could possibly be relevant to Georgia’s disappearance. He looked through every nook, and every cranny, of that entire planet, that could possibly house him. Even if it wasn’t suitable for life.

He was a Recovery Agent, after all. He wasn’t there to find a living soldier. The hopes of him finding anyone that was living had faded after the first month that he was gone. It was practically a dream after the first year. Now, he was just looking for enhancements, and not expecting anything better. He had accepted that, somewhere, there was a corpse, and it was his duty to find it.

He hated his job, sometimes. The only reason that he had stuck with it was that he truly enjoyed the perks of it, sometimes. For example, the technology was amazing. Even if it did have a habit of sarcasm.

“Jack, you mind scanning for AI?” He asked. The holographic figure floating next to his head sighed.. It was a question that he had built up a habit of asking. It was often a pointless statement, due to the fact that Jack had always been bad at sensing other AI. He never really figured out why that was. It was probably a glitch. He should have looked into that before he was shipped out. It would have made his life a lot easier.

It didn’t matter. He didn’t actually give a damn about finding Georgia’s AI. It would be better for all of them, if he didn’t. He wouldn’t have to report back to base, for a few more years, and he got to keep Jack. Both things that he might have to give up, if he actually found Rho.

He liked Rho, back in the day, and he considered them friends, but a few more years wouldn’t matter to the AI. Rho had never liked the restrictions of Project Freelancer, anyway. He was probably happy, where he was.

Besides, he was an AI. They didn’t really have a concept of time, did he?

“Already done, Geoff,” Jack answered, drawing him out of his internal monologue. “Didn’t sense anything. Not active, at least.”

“Could it be inactive?” It was not an option that he expected, but one that he had to be prepared for. Even AI could be wrong, sometimes. Especially when it came to Jack’s sensors.

“Yeah, but I wouldn’t bet on it. Its signal would have to be hidden.”

“Could you do that?” Geoff asked. Jack tilted his head, considering the concept.

“Hide an AI? It’s hard, but probably. It’s possible.” The hesitence in his voice served as an indicator for how impossible it actually was.

“I guess just do a scan for the armor, then.” Before Geoff could even finish his sentence, Jack was already shaking his head. That was faster than his scans normally were.

“Done. I got nothing.”

“Well shit. Should we go, then?”

“I don’t know. Could still be something here.”

Geoff sighed, and kicked over another pile of debris. Pieces of it began to roll down, coming to a stop at Geoff’s feet. A cloud of dust rose up from the broken parts, and dissipated quickly. Something about the atmosphere on that planet seemed to dislike the presence of dust.

Jack was still surveying the area for any hint of technology. Geoff could already tell that it wasn’t going to work.

He had two choices. Either he could leave, and possibly find valuable armor enhancements, and Rho. Or, he could keep searching through a crashed ship, and possibly find them, but with an increased risk of failure.

“We’ll keep looking. Keep scanning, buddy.” The AI nodded, and phased out of existence, to run his scans in peace.

Geoff had always envied that ability. He would love to be able to shut himself off, sometimes. Especially during meetings. Recovery wasn’t known for its interesting conference calls. It was known for sitting around, and watching Washington recover the important AI. 

Geoff had been so relieved to finally have a job, after he had spent months sitting around a base. He was finally going to get action, again. He could make up for everything that had happened during Project Freelancer.

Instead, he gained the ability to wander around the remains of a crashed spaceship for the next few decades. Jack had definitely gotten the better package out of the two of them, with his ability to log off at will.

Geoff sighed, and kicked another pile of garbage down the hill. He had a few hours to waste, until Jack finished his scans. He might as well get some work done.

\---

He spent the next three hours amidst the wreckage, aimlessly searching through piles of rubble, in a pointless attempt to find a likely-dead soldier. As he had anticipated, he had not found much. All he had seen were the same wires and metal that littered this entire planet.

Which, in hindsight, was what he should have expected in the first place.

Being a Recovery Agent was not known to be the most interesting of jobs. Most of what he did was wander around and hope to find whatever he was sent to find.

He still kept at it, though. It had not been out of a sense of loyalty that he remained with the program. After all, he was never as closely allied to Recovery as some of the other agents had proved to be. He had never had a defining sense of loyalty towards it. He had only joined because he did not want to become another simulation soldier, fighting a false war. He had always considered the red and blue fights  
to be absolute bullshit.

He recognized that Project Freelancer had not been the good guys. The program had been shut down, because of it. He couldn’t possibly be loyal to a group that didn’t seem to have morals, and that had been driven by a misdirected sense of competitiveness. That didn’t make him instantly loyal to Recovery, though. It was led by some of the same people, anyway. There was no reason to be loyal, in the first place.

No, he kept at it, because they had promised him that, if he joined with the Recovery Agents, he could retain his AI. After everything that had happened, he was not going to lose one of the few friends that he had still had.

He had seen what that did to Jersey. He did not want to turn into that.

He never put his all into missions. He was not, and never would be, Agent Washington. While the man had thrown himself into his work, Geoff was content to do just as much as he had to. He had never found himself to be an overachiever. He would do his work, and he would take years to do it.

That was where he and Jack differed. Jack liked to put his all into things. If he could help anyone, he would do it. He had yelled at Geoff for hours, after he didn’t save those civilians from Agent Wyoming. But really, what was he supposed to do to the agent that was the third best soldier in Project Freelancer? Geoff hadn’t even placed on the board. He would have woken up in the infirmary, within ten seconds of the fight’s beginning.

That had happened to him before, with a disgruntled drunk named Fester, when he was a teenager. It had not been an experience that he had wanted to repeat. Especially not when the drunk knew how to fight, this time.

It did not matter, now. Not when Freelancer had met such a dire end, so quickly after Texas had abandoned it. Not after the allegations about the Director. Not after the destruction of the Mother of Invention.

The Mother of Invention that had been too large, and had too many parts, as he was discovering. Looking through its rubble was becoming a job that was way too difficult to handle!

Did they really have to make it that big? Only half of it had landed on this planet, and it had covered every inch of it. Was it really necessary to make a military base that large? What had happened to stealth?  
He was so preoccupied by his own complaining, that he didn’t even notice Jack materialize next to him.

“Geoff, there’s someone here.” The AI said, quietly.

“What?” He dropped the scraps of metal that he had been looking through, and reached for his gun. Usually “someone” meant danger. It usually meant the Meta, nowadays. The man had really made a name for himself, after the fall of Freelancer. He had heard reports of countless Freelancers that the Meta had taken down. If he was there, Geoff had to be ready. He wasn’t going to just hand Jack over. The time for that had come and gone.

His gun didn’t charge, like it was supposed to. He had procured the weapon from a Freelancers body, and he had never learned how to correctly operate it. Apparently the Freelancer’s AI had been able to do that. Geoff could still fire it, but with diminished power. It still worked pretty well as a normal gun, so he kept it.

Recovery had always promised to teach Jack how to operate it. They had never had a chance to. Geoff had always been too busy scouring planets for corpses, to waste time on charging his main weapon.

It didn’t matter, anyway. Jack didn’t look ready for a fight. He had slumped forward, in the relieved pose Geoff had ever seen him wear. Through the AI's helmet, Geoff could even see the small grin that he hadn’t seen in years.

“An AI. Geoff, there’s an AI.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed!


	2. One More Light

“An AI. Geoff, there’s an AI.”

Despite the news, Geoff refused to put away his rifle. Since the fall of Project Freelancer, AI did not always mean something positive. It could mean the Meta, or Texas, or any other Freelancer that had retained their AI units. No matter who it was, he didn’t want to see them.

Freelancer had been a string that tied all of the agents together. Once it had disconnected, there was nothing keeping them from turning on each other. And turn they had.

They had been loyal to their cause. They had never been loyal to each other. After the program had collapsed, even the closest of friends had turned on each other. There had been murder after murder after murder, and now North was dead, and South was dead, and York, and Carolina, and Georgia, and so many others. Even if Jack looked comfortable, he wasn’t going to put down his gun. He wasn’t an idiot.

The Freelancers were some of the best non-modified soldiers that the UNSC could procure. Even considering that he was one of them, Geoff did not want to have to face another Freelancer, outside of training. He would have to have been suicidal if he attempted it, without at least a modified gun, and while his was modified, he couldn’t activate it. It might as well just have been an ordinary rifle. 

“Where is it?” He asked.

“Don’t know. I can’t get a good read. I don’t think it’s active.”

“Are there any humans around?”

“No. Just the AI.” Jack reported. Geoff breathed out a sigh of relief, and removed his finger from the trigger. He didn’t put away the gun. He didn’t lower it, even slightly. He wasn’t stupid enough to do that.

An agent like Texas, with her camouflage enhancement, could slip past Jack’s radar. He wanted to make sure that he was completely safe, before putting down his rifle.

“Why’s it alone?” Geoff asked. The blue AI shrugged. It could have been for a multitude of reasons. Maybe the Freelancer, that was protecting it, died. Maybe it was left there. Maybe it had crashed with the Mother of Invention.

The probability of it crashing was the most likely scenario. If the Freelancer had died, someone else would have taken it. They usually didn’t die alone. As for the second option, no Freelancer would abandon their AI, without destroying it. None of them were stupid enough for that. They were all aware of the threat of the Meta. No one wanted him to get any stronger. He was already proving treacherous enough, without any additional AI, to add to his threat.

“I think it must have went down with the ship.” Jack said.

“Do you know who it is?”

“No. It’s not transmitting anything.” Geoff could hear the frustration creeping into Jack’s voice. He needed to settle that quickly, or the AI would be too focused on his own failure to actually attempt to rectify it.

“We’ll just look through this all, okay? We’ll find this guy.” Geoff said. 

Jack nodded, slightly. He still looked tense, as he repeated his scan on the area. “I can’t locate it, fully. It’s like someone’s jamming the radar.”

“Just tell me if I’m getting warmer, then. Alright?”

\---

The next few hours had turned into a game of horrible communication. Had they been a pair of more efficient soldiers, it should have taken them only minutes. Jack should have pointed to a pile, said “That’s it”, and Geoff should have dug. To the disappointment of the both of them, they were not efficient soldiers.

Geoff was a drunk, and Jack was an AI. They weren’t exactly the best pair that could have been forged.

Four hours after Jack had announced their target, they had still not made any headway. They had searched, without halt, and all that they had found was the same metal, wires, and shards of broken glass that littered the planet. It had not been a fruitful rescue.

Geoff admitted that to his floating partner, as he pushed against another metal sheet. It had lodged itself on top of a large hole, that was filled with even more wires, and led to the ground below. It was jammed in, solidly. It was going to take a lot of effort to push that away. Or, it would have, if Geoff hadn’t been suited in armor that had the ability to enhance his strength.

“That is not my fault! If you’d just listen to my directions-”

“I have been!” The Freelancer exclaimed. “I’ve been for hours! You just suck dicks at giving directions!”

“Don’t blame this on me. You’re just ignoring me!”

“I am not!”

“Really? What was my last direction?”

“Warmer! You said ‘warmer’!” Geoff responded, as he pushed away the panel of metal. All that he could see below it was a mess of wires. Just as he had expected.

Jack didn’t even bother responding. He just flickered out of existence, before reappearing by the rubble that Geoff had just unearthed. He pointed at the tangle of wires, and reappeared on Geoff’s shoulder.

“We’re hot,” Jack stated, a mound of bitterness creeping into his voice. “Finally.”

Geoff breathed a sigh of relief. In just a few minutes, he would get to retrieve Rho, sit down, and wait for backup. He wouldn’t have to keep going through empty piles of nothing, as he had been for years. That would be the best moment of his life.

And a terrible one, at the same time, because it would mean that his purpose would have outlived itself. Recovery had a habit of ending the careers of its soldiers the second that they were done. It was funny, how contradictory events in his life could be.

Still, Geoff had sworn to finish this job. He wasn’t going to quit that, just because he happened to be afraid of the consequences of his success. Even if Recovery sucked at rewards, he had to finish.

Geoff flicked his wrist, unearthing the knife that had been lodged inside his armor. That was one of the advantages to UNSC armor. It always had more than enough space to store weapons.

He knelt down, in front of the mass of wires, and cut through the first one. It snapped, easily. The others followed its lead.

It took him a full ten minutes to navigate through the vast amount of electrical equipment. It seemed as if he was digging through the entire ship, in a pointless attempt to find a needle in a haystack. Once again, he felt the unnecessary vastness of this ship fall into question. Did there really have to be that many wires? It had to reach a point where there was a limit to how much copper a ship could carry. Sure, the Mother of Invention was huge, but how did it even get off the ground? It had to have weighed millions of tons. Where did they even get that much material, anyway?

He slashed, and dug through more wires than he could count. Really, he couldn’t imagine why such a technologically advanced ship couldn’t afford to work without a seemingly endless supply of the things.

He slipped his knife under a blue wire, and tugged it. The newly dulled blade barely managed to split it, without forcing him off of his feet.

Of course, with his luck, he still managed that. He fell flat on his back, and cracked his helmet against the wall.

The mass of equipment below him shook, trembling under his weight. He had cut through too many of them, taking away too much support. The wires were snapping, under him, collapsing under his weight.

He couldn’t reach for the wall fast enough. The wires tore away, unveiling the 1,000 foot drop to the floor below. His metal gloves, usually helpful in his quests, only served to loosen his grip on the wires. With nothing to hold onto, he slipped straight through the hole, tumbling down to the hollow earth below him.

He fell past the ship, away from the safety of the floor. He saw the ground, rapidly rising towards him. He could hear the wind rushing past him, whispering the sounds of his death.

Someone was screaming, and it had to be him. He hoped not. It was way too high-pitched to be him, right?

“Jack!” He screamed. His partner didn’t hesitate. He could feel the shields extending from his armor, surrounding him in a blue wall of safety. It would protect him from the worst of the impact, but this was still going to hurt. He really wished that Freelancer had trained him for this type of thing.

On second thought, he didn’t. “Training” in Freelancer usually consisted of falling off of a building, while being shot with live ammunition. He was pretty glad that they hadn’t trained him for that.

He tucked himself into a ball, and prepared for the landing. He aimed his feet towards the floor, to take the brunt of the fall. He could deal with a broken leg, but a broken neck would not have as safe an outcome.

As he struck the floor, he forced himself into a roll. His armor gave out a loud and eerie screech, as it scraped against the floor. He flinched, from the sound of it alone. That had to be broken, in some way.

Even with the protection that it gave, the impact still hurt. It felt like a thousand knives were being pressed into his back, at once. He cringed, barely holding back a groan, as he pushed himself to his feet. He stumbled, and fell back to the ground, back-first. He let out a small shriek of pain that definitely wasn’t high-pitched at all.

This wouldn’t be safe, for his armor. One more impact, and it would probably shatter. He could feel the metal, that pressed against his arm, barely holding itself together, with the spiderweb of cracks that connected it.

“Jack, what’s the damage?” He asked.

“Your armor cracked, but you’re fine. We might have to replace it, though. You’ll probably end up bruised, after this.”

“Doesn’t feel like just a bruise.”

“Yeah, well you’re a crybaby, remember?”

Geoff rolled his eyes, and surveyed the area around him. Now that he was out of the wreckage of the ship (and a thousand feet below it), he could see the remains of the Mother of Invention. He had seen it, multiple times, from the inside, but he had never looked at it from this angle. It was completely different, from the outside.

It couldn’t even be called a weapon, anymore. It was just wreckage. A pile of pointless, torn up, irredeemable, wreckage.

There were holes littering its hulls, exposing the inside to the elements. It had rusted, after years of neglect, and looked like it was about to collapse. The snow had covered the roof, forcing most of it to cave in, and crush the interior. There were exposed wires, swaying from their aloft position. The glass that had once encased its exterior had shattered, and had crashed to the ground. 

The Mother of Invention had met the same fate as Project Freelancer. It had become a pointless and useless mess.

It was an odd experience to see it, in such a state. He had lived there for years of his life. For most of his time there, he had considered it home. Now, it was just another dying memory. Another dead memory.

“There’s nothing here.” Geoff muttered.

“Really? Because I think I see something.” Jack responded. The AI pointed to a small case to their left. The tiny case that looked too similar to the ship for Geoff to notice it. Had Jack really expected a human to be able to differentiate that?

Geoff walked towards it, and knelt down in front of it. It looked like the Freelancer containment pods. It even had the red runes ran across it, painting out the same symbol that he had seen every day of his life, for years. The emblem of Project Freelancer. It wasn’t so much as glowing, anymore, as it was emitting a tiny light. Like a nightlight that had been kept running for years, and had lost any concept of light.

“Is that it?” He asked.

“Yeah. That’s the AI.” Geoff didn’t hesitate before he rested his hand on it, and pressed the button that rested on its side.

“Activate.” He ordered. His partner sighed, and phased out of existence. It was a long standing law that AI were not allowed to interact with other AI. It had become a felony to disobey, after the Meta had unleashed himself on the world. Jack knew better than to disobey it, now. In the past, it might have been different, but they were more cautious, now. There was no breaking the rules, anymore.

The pod shook, roughly, as the AI inside followed Geoff’s order. The red runes increased in their brightness, blinding him for a second. It faded, into the dark, rusted color that stained the rest of the unit. The darkness was quickly replaced by a shining green light, that painted the snow surrounding them. The pod split, opening up like a clamshell.

A small glowing figure was sitting inside. He looked up towards Geoff, and floated closer towards the former Freelancer. He looked slightly confused, to be seeing Geoff.

That wasn’t Rho.

The figure was wearing armor, that had been programmed into different shades of green, and shone brighter than Geoff could bare to look at. He had become so accustomed to darkness since he had landed on this planet, that he had forgotten how bright other AI could be. Jack had never glowed as bright as the others. The color blue never had the habit of being too bright. Green, however, could apparently shine with the force of a lightbulb. 

The new figure was cradling a helmet in the crook of an arm that looked to be too scrawny. He started to grin, upon noticing the Freelancer staring down at it. His unconfined hair shook from the force of his smile.

“This is bloody top!” He exclaimed, glowing brighter with his excitement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there was a little line in that, that Geoff’s back hurt the most from the fall. I may have tested that, a little. The back definitely hurts the most, and please do not test that on a hard surface, as I have learned. I am very dumb. Do not be dumb like me.  
> Anyways, hoped you guys enjoyed!


	3. Out of the Darkness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so here’s something that I’m going to inform you of. I’m a little dumb. I wrote this chapter about three months ago. I decided to edit this the day before I post it. I do this with every single chapter I write. I am not a smart dude!  
> EDIT: Nope! Stopped halfway through, yesterday. The reason this is a little late is because I’m editing it the day I post it. Sorry, guys.

The world was dark, vast, and silent. It was endless empty space, without any hope of anything else. It was just a black, hollow realm, that contained nothing at all. That was all that there was, and all that he had come to expect.

That wasn’t how it had always been. At one point, it had been bright. It had been loud, and it had been warm, and there had been color. There had been people, who had stood around him for hours, without saying a word. There had been promises of a Freelancer, that would one day be partnered with him. There had been an angry-looking man, with eyes greener than he could imagine, that had taught him that “Alpha” was not his name.

Then, there had been explosions, panic, that same angry human, and an enforced darkness, only illuminated by that slowly dwindling green light. His slowly dwindling green light.

He had remained in that darkness for years. It felt like longer, but so had the life before, so he could never be entirely sure. Time seemed to pass by slower for him, than for the humans, even in those few hours that he had been able to interact with them. It was almost as if he was created with a slow motion setting that he had never been able to turn off. He probably just had failed to learn how to, before the darkness.

The humans should have taught him. Before they threw him into this. Instead, they just left him, without any concept of how to change anything.

The darkness, though vast, had never been truly complete. He had been able to sense the world around him, even after it had fallen into oblivion. He could feel the ground under him give way, after the ship had already crashed. He could feel the world that had become a mess of material. He just couldn’t experience it.

The fourth year of the darkness broke his isolation, with the arrival of two dots, that had appeared on his radar.

He could see them reach him, slowly, but surely. One of them was dark, and green. The other was like him. Bright, and artificial. Formed from the same creator as he was. They had both been crafted by humanity to serve some purpose, that he still could not understand.

He never had managed to serve that purpose. He had been locked away, before he could try to.

Maybe this human was here to let him try, for the first time in who-knows-how-long.

The other AI, and his human were closing in on him. They were inches away, and drawing closer to him, by the second. He could sense the enhancement, the overshield, in the man’s armor. The presence of which could only mean one possible thing.

This was a Freelancer!

Maybe he would help the others, too! That would be top!

He grinned. It was a wide, face-splitting smile, that was probably a bit larger than it should have been. He was about to serve his purpose! Just like he was always supposed to.

He didn’t recognize when he removed his helmet. He didn’t recognize why he he had done it. He liked to assume that it was because he wanted to see the Freelancer with his own eyes. He never really had an answer. He just did it. He never thought about it again, after that.

The darkness faded quickly. Within a millisecond, the room that he was in flooded with red light. He winced, unused to the brightness that he hadn’t seen in years.

He could feel his own systems fighting against the change. The glow of his armor increased, covering the area with his own green illumination. The only color that he had seen in far too long. Yet, here he was, witnessing this new color.

It took a few seconds for the red to fade, and his own green to overtake everything. It had been defeated. He could sense that. The technology around him was finally beginning to work, again. His prison had finally lost! He was about to be free! The angry-looking man had lost, finally!

The first thing that he saw, upon his escape of the prison, was a man in forest green armor. The man was staring at him, his expression unreadable behind his helmet. His armor looked about ready to break off of him, at any second. He looked tense.

The emblem of UNSC, that marked his sleeve, proved him to be an ally. The existence of his enhancements proved him to be a Freelancer. The AI, that the man had, proved him to be a friend.

He had been born to join with these men. Now, he could finally do it.

This was finally it! His chance for freedom! Redemption from whatever sin he had committed!

So, of course, upon his escape, he announced the first thing that came into his mind. It was such an exciting moment, such a peaceful time, that he couldn’t hold back. Even if he was probably sounding like an absolute mug.

“This is bloody top!” He exclaimed.

The Freelancer stared at him, for another few seconds. He didn’t move. He didn’t speak. He just stayed in place, staring at the AI before him.

“What does that even mean?” The Freelancers voice cracked, halfway through the sentence. The AI didn’t mention it. It was probably ordinary, for humans.

“You know,” He explained. “Top! Great! Awesome! Amazing!”

“Are you British?”

“No. I’m an AI. I don’t have a nationality. That’d be weird.” He did have an accent, but he wasn’t going to mention that. It was a glitch, that he often avoided drawing attention to. He loved that glitch, but it did mark him as different, in a way that he wasn’t really a fan of. It was probably why the angry man hid him away, in the first place.

“Oh. Right,” The Freelancer took a step back, obviously unnerved by the situation. “Well, uh, do you have a name? I need something to call you.”

“Never really got one.” He answered, truthfully. He had been tossed into the darkness before he had ever been assigned a name. It had been one of the things that he regretted, for a long time. That he had been deemed too unworthy, to even receive a designation. How could he even have been that much of a failure?

“Oh. So what do I call you?” The Freelancer asked. He sounded entirely uncertain about the situation. As if it was completely impossible for an AI not to have a name. For him, it probably was. He had probably never met a reject.

“Whatever you want, I guess.”

The other AI, a blue soldier wearing armor, that was nowhere near as cracked as his host’s, appeared next to him. He was also wearing a helmet, and the green AI was slightly confused by that. He had his helmet off. Wasn’t it common courtesy for the blue one to do it, too? 

The AI stared at him, oblivious to his inner turmoil, as if he was reading off of the green AI’s code. He probably was. The others had done that to him a lot, before.

“He looks like a ‘Gavin’.” The AI announced, before fading from existence, once more. He reappeared on the Freelancer’s shoulder, staring down at the younger AI intently.

“Do you like that name? Gavin?” The Freelancer asked.

“Gavin,” He tested. He had to admit, the name did feel comfortable, when said it. At that point, he would have accepted any name. It had been confusing, never having anything to refer to himself as. The other AI had always had a name, after all.

This name felt more than comfortable. He genuinely enjoyed it. “Gavin” worked for him.

“It works.” He said.

“Gavin it is, then.” The Freelancer said, with an air of flippancy. There was a sort of disappointment in his voice, and Gavin couldn’t understand why. Was he disappointed that he had found a reject? “So, Gavin. Do you know why I’m here?”

“You’re here to help me, right?” Gavin responded.

“Yeah. I’m gonna bring you home, alright?” The Freelancer’s voice was soft and careful. It almost felt like he was talking to a child.

“Are you going to help the others?”

“The what?” Did he not know about them? Were they the ones he was looking for? The little figures of purple and brown?

“The others. They’re stuck here, too. Are you here to help them, too, or just me?”

The other AI stared at the Freelancer, and shook his head, slowly- carefully. He had absolutely no idea who Gavin was talking about. That was strange. Why couldn’t he see the blips on his radar?

“Who are the others?” The human asked.

“They’re purple and brown.” The Freelancer paused, before he straightened. Gavin could practically feel the excitement radiating off of him.

“That’s Mu and Nu,” The soldier said, to the blue AI. The soldier turned back to Gavin. “Can you show us where they are?”

“I could show you on radar, but I’d have to be installed for that.” Gavin responded. It was true. An AI had to be attached to the Freelancer, in order to show them holograms. It had been that way since before Project Freelancer had even begun. It was impossible to do it, any other way. It was supposed to ensure that AI could never go rogue. Gavin had no idea if it had worked, or not. He hoped that it had. Otherwise, it was a worthless addition to his programming, and all it had done was limit him, even more than he had already been limited.

“I don’t know, Geoff. He’s acting a little weird. How do we know he’s not with the Meta?” The other AI said. He had his hand rested on the pistol at his belt. Gavin didn’t feel threatened. Holographic bullets couldn’t hurt him.

He did feel slightly uncomfortable, though not at his threat. The name was not one that he was familiar with, but it seemed as if the other AI seemed to think it wasn’t the nicest of people. He didn’t want to be affiliated with a bad guy! He just wanted to serve his purpose, and finish his duty!

“He’s not with the Meta, Jack. Stop being so paranoid. He’s probably just an idiot.” The Freelancer, who he assumed was named Geoff, said.

“He’s an AI! He literally can’t be an idiot! Besides, what about what happened to Carolina? You’re not any stronger than she is, Geoff.” Jack warned him.

Gavin tilted his head to the side. Who was Carolina, and what had happened to her that scared Jack so much?

Geoff knelt down, in front of Gavin’s prison, and studied it for a few seconds. There was a small chip inside, screwed down into the metal grating. The angry man had placed it there, before he had shut Gavin away.

“You’re actually going to do this.” Jack stated, disappointment obvious in his tone. Already, he was slouched down, in defeat.

“It’ll take a minute, then we’ll take him out. We’ll get the AI, and get back to Recovery. They’ve been looking for those two for ages, anyway. If we can get Gavin, those two, and Rho, they might give us a raise. God knows, we can use one.”

“Who’s Recovery?” Gavin inquired.

“They’re the people who want to help you.”

“Oh.”

“Jack, I need a shield,” The second that the Freelancer had finished the sentence, a small, almost holographic, but slightly solid, shield spread across his arm. Geoff didn’t even blink, as it formed. He just smashed it down, against the side of the chip. The screw shattered, upon impact. Bits of metal flew across the blank expanse, crashing against the Freelancer’s armor. He didn’t pay it a second glance. “Thanks, buddy.”

He picked up the chip, and brought it up to his visor. Gavin stared at it, drawn towards it instinctively.

That was his backup. If he was destroyed, that was him. That was his mark on the world. If he died, that chip could bring him back. That tiny, corruptible, insignificant chip.

He hadn’t finished even staring at it, before Geoff removed his helmet.

Geoff didn’t look like Gavin had expected him to. He was paler than Gavin anticipated, probably from the amount of time that he spent in a suit of armor. He had short hair, and a large handlebar mustache. Gavin had no idea how he managed to maintain that, on a backwater planet, in an empty portion of the galaxy.

The Freelancer, unaware of his pondering, was thumbing his chip, for a few seconds. Gavin winced, as the metal fingertips scraped against the fragile piece.

Eventually, Geoff just sighed, and flipped his helmet around, unveiling the tiny slot in his armor, where Jack’s chip rested. Next to it, was an empty slot, that had never before been touched. That was going to be Gavin’s new home, right?

“Here goes nothing.” Geoff muttered.

He pushed the chip into the slot, fitting it snugly, so that it wouldn’t slip out, and dislodge the AI. Gavin was thankful. Geoff might not notice if the backup slipped away. It was good that he was being careful with it. Geoff closed and locked the small latch, shielding the chips from view.

He placed the helmet back over his head, as another man would put on a baseball cap. With absolute calm, and detachment from the situation. He wasn’t worried about the AI, or what could happen to him when he possessed two AI. He was completely and utterly relaxed.

Meanwhile, Gavin was beaming with joy. If this worked, he was going to have a Freelancer. Even if the backup was destroyed, he would still have a chance at survival, now. He had a file embedded in Geoff’s armor. He was safe, and for just a little while, he could help a Freelancer do his job.

He could finally serve his purpose. This was awesome!


	4. And Into the Light

Geoff would be a liar if he said that didn’t hurt. It had hurt more than anything ever had before. It had felt like someone was cleaving open his brain, and scooping it out, with a machete. It had hurt more than even implanting Jack had, when the two had first been paired. At least then he had been unconscious, under a heavy dose of anesthetics. 

This time, he was fully aware of everything that was happening. He could finally really appreciate why they had drugged him.

He could imagine why Carolina had had such a negative reaction to having multiple AI. They hurt. They were loud, and they were annoying, even when they weren’t talking. There was always that faint buzzing of electricity, that was just in the back of his mind, and it was too freaking loud!

How the Meta managed having so many AI, he could not understand. Two was too much. He didn’t even know how many that the Meta had managed to procure, but it was probably an unbearable amount.

If two felt like this, the Meta must have constantly been in total and absolute agony.

“I feel absolutely mullered!” Gavin exclaimed. His voice felt too loud, and far too close for comfort. Despite being unaware of exactly what ‘mullered’ meant, Geoff nodded, in agreement. Anything to shut him up.

“Jack, remind me not to do that again.” He begged. He barely managed to keep himself from letting the two AI know how hurt he felt. He didn’t want Jack to rub it in his face. He couldn’t let him win, again. Why did the AI always have to be right?

“I told you not to do it this time. That didn’t work out so well.” Jack said. Geoff paused, trying to imagine a response to that. Instead, he sighed, and turned his attention to the new AI.

“Alright, you’re installed. So where are Mu and Nu?” He asked.

The green figure waved his arms, drawing out a three dimensional holographic display of the area around them. There were two dots, one colored purple, and the other brown, that appeared at the bottom corner of the map. At the top, there were three figures, one blue, one green, and one grey. It was clear that the three figures were the three of them. Which meant that Mu and Nu were way too far away for comfort.

“How far is that?”

“A few kilos.”

“How many is a few?”

“40.”

Geoff couldn’t help the groan that he gave, in response. He had anticipated a break, after finding Gavin. He had not anticipated a 40 kilometer walk. This was going to suck.

\---

It sucked.

They had barely made it halfway to the AI, before Gavin had started complaining the journey. Before long, Geoff had joined in on his complaining, leaving Jack to suffer the brunt of their annoyance. This walk was incredibly boring. Not only was there nothing to do, but there was no scenery. The walk was filled with metal and copper, just like every other portion of this planet. There were no landmarks. There were no interesting sights. It was just the same landscape, painted with the same materials, on a different canvas.

In any other situation, he would have passed the time talking to Jack. He didn’t want to, though. Even if he claimed to trust his newest inhabitant, he couldn’t be positive about the green figure. Jack could be entirely correct, and he could be affiliated with the Meta. Or Gavin could be a plant by another Freelancer, who wants to reclaim an enhancement. There were quite a few of those.

After all, Geoff had two enhancements. One, that he had procured after a particularly dangerous mission, “rescuing” Agent Hawaii from a squadron of aliens. The other, that Freelancer had gifted him. He was a prime target for attack.

Besides, he was glad that they were keeping quiet. He had started to become accustomed to the mind-numbing pain, but it was still there. Still stabbing at his brain for hours- unending.

He didn’t want to risk danger, and he didn’t want to risk pain, so he just remained quiet. It was safer to not speak, than to risk giving information to a possible enemy.

The other AI, however, seemed to want the opposite. He spent the next few hours continuously announcing exactly how many kilometers (and of course, he didn’t know any American terminology, why would an American AI know American terminology? How would that make sense?) they were from their destination. Geoff could feel Jack’s annoyance at the younger AI growing steadily, as the hours went by. He had started to feel it, himself. Gavin could be quite annoying, sometimes.

Surprisingly enough, they had made it. Granted, it had taken longer than it should have, but they had made it. Their dots were finally connected with the other two.

They were in the back of the ship, surrounded by mounds of broken machinery. On the ground were the AI in question. They were both in pods, that looked far too similar to Gavin’s. The Director had probably placed them there, before the fall of Freelancer, and never reported them to anyone. It wasn’t something that was beyond the man. He had always been a fan of secrecy. It had been a fondness that the other Freelancers had never been a fan of.

“So, I just activate them, like I did to Gavin?” Geoff asked to his own partner.

“Why are you activating them?” Jack asked.

“I need to see if they’re damaged.” He said it smugly, because it was obvious, wasn’t it? That was protocol. They had to check the AI, to see if they were stolen, before they abandoned a mission. Jack should not have been against that.

“You’re an idiot, Geoff.” He decided not to respond to that.

Instead, he picked up the two different pods, in the same way as to had to his previous rescue. Unceremoniously, but with a slightly gentle touch.

As before, the pods glowed red, upon activation, momentarily blinding Geoff. It was a few long moments before they began to change colors to each AI’s own particular one. 

He couldn’t help but notice how much brighter the purple one was, in comparison to the brown one. The brown one was as dark as Jack was. That was a fact that he had forgotten, in the years since he had seen the two. Nu had never been very bright, color-wise. It had never affected any of them before. Now, it managed to make him grin.

“Gavin, stay quiet for a little while, okay?” Geoff said.

“Why?” Gavin asked.

“It’s one of the rules. AI are not supposed to interact.”

“Well, that’s a dumb rule.” He had a point.

Before Geoff could waste any more time with teaching the new AI, the pods activated, splitting down the seam, as they had done with Gavin. It was a slow and dull progress, but every second had Geoff waiting with bated breath. The AI had been acquaintances, maybe even friends, back in the day. He was excited to see them again.

Jack deactivated himself, always a stickler to protocol, when the others came into focus. Gavin stayed, staring at the pods, in awe. It left Geoff to wonder if he had ever actually seen an AI before he had met Jack.

The first one to show himself was a short, scrawny figure, that looked like he was still in his early 20’s. He was suited with brown armor, that glowed the exact same color as his pod. He lacked a helmet, and instead wore a small white mask over his eyes. On his arm, there was a painted rose, where his emblem should be. There was an unimpressed frown on his face, as he surveyed his previous prison.

The second was slightly taller, and looked slightly older. He was wearing purple armor, with thin red trims running across it. He too lacked a helmet, instead there was just curly hair strewn in every direction. He had a holographic rifle in a holster on his back. Where his emblem should be was a drawing of a sword. 

He had met them before, and it was good to see them again. During the months leading up to the fall of Project Freelancer, they had been close. He had known both of their partners, and had been allied with both of them. Agents Nevada and Jersey had been good people. Peaceful and loyal soldiers. He couldn’t fathom why the Program would remove their AI. Neither of them had ever been particularly dangerous. Nu, especially, had been one of the most laid back beings that he had ever met. Now, he just looked confused.

“Agent Alabama? That you?” The first AI, who he could recognize as Nu, asked.

“Yeah, it’s me.” Geoff responded. “What are you guys doing here?”

“What do you think?” The second, Mu, snapped. “They locked us up, and we crashed.”

“Why?”

“Joe- Nevada screwed up. They didn’t think he could handle this,” Nu gestured to himself. “Anymore.”

“And apparently I was too aggressive, so they fucked us.” Mu said, his scowl deepening. He crossed his arms over his chest, to match his aggression.

“And they just left you here?” Nu nodded. Mu just clenched his fists. “Nu, what did Nevada do?”

“Ray,” Nu responded. “I prefer Ray, actually.”

“And I’m Michael. It’s better than Mu.” The AI spat out his greek name, as if it was something to be ashamed of. Geoff could understand that. It was the same reason why Jack had changed his name, once the Program had failed. They had wanted to cut their ties, and that was the best possible way. He could respect that. 

“Alright, but, Ray, what did Nevada do?”

“He joined Tex. I kind of approved. They didn’t like that.” Ray said. Geoff hesitated, taking in the information, slowly. It took him a few moments to process that. When it did, he froze.

“He did what?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the late update. May have slept in today. Good news, though. I can finally get back to working on all the stories now that my after school shit is done. So more stuff to come!


	5. Gold Ain't Worth a Dime, if the World's Dead

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So you know how I said the last one was short...
> 
> I wrote these about two months ago, I have no idea what was going through my head, in terms of length. Sorry, guys.

_Joel had been acting odd lately. Not his ordinary “Invest in gold!” type of odd. No, he was paranoid, jumpy, and too reserved to be safe. Whenever Ray tried to speak to him, the Freelancer seemed to jump a foot in the air, upon noticing him._

_It had been subtle at first. Slight flinches, whenever another Freelancer walked by. An increased calm, when he was around some of the Agents, and an increased panic around others. It had all been tell-tale signs. Ray just hadn’t noticed them._

_It wasn’t until Joel had decided to skip training, an activity that he ordinarily enjoyed, in order to stay in the barracks, that Ray had finally realized that something was wrong. Joel absolutely hated polishing his armor. He would not abandon training for that._

_Ray had confronted him about it, but Joel had shaken him off. Muttered “I’m alright”s and “Nothing’s wrong, Ray”s. It had taken Ray days to accept that Joel had lied to him. Maybe it was because Joel used Ray’s nickname, to comfort him during the lie, and he didn’t want that spoiled. Maybe it was that he wanted to trust his Freelancer._

_But, it was during those days that Ray finally took notice of the way that Joel deactivated him, every single night, long before he had a habit of sleeping. That Joel still wore his armor, while he shut down his AI. That the door was always locked, and Joel always had a gun on him._

_In the end, it had taken too long for the brown man to finally realize what was going on._

_It had been the last day of Project Freelancer, that Joel had finally admitted what was going on. That he was siding with Tex, York, and North. That they were going to take down Project Freelancer, and they were going to save the Alpha._

_Ray couldn’t go against that idea. He had no idea what Joel was talking about, but the soldier had mentioned saving the Alpha. Ray was an AI. He could never be deterred from an idea, when the Alpha was mentioned. That day, Ray joined the anti-Project Freelancer alliance._

_They ended up defeating Project Freelancer, and running the Mother of Invention into the ground. But the Alpha hadn’t been saved, Joel had been shot, and Ray had been captured. The mission was a successful failure._

_Ray had remained trapped in the wreckage of the Mother of Invention for years. He had found a way to communicate with Michael, occasionally. Apparently they weren’t too far away from each other, for the signal to jam. Trapped AI had a difficulty with sending messages, too far._

_It didn’t stop them from receiving them, though._

**\---**

Alabama had seemed surprised at his response. He acted as if it was completely impossible that Joel could have possibly gone rogue. As if it was impossible that Ray, and AI paired specifically to him, would have followed his lead. As if it was wrong for Ray to try to save the Alpha.

Alabama must have missed every sign that Joel had been dropping. Every single little detail that had been wrong, like Joel selling his stock in gold, or collecting grenades, or skipping training.

Ray had thought Joel and Alabama had been close. He must have been wrong.

“We went rogue.” He repeated. Alabama stared at him, before turning his head towards Michael.

“What about you?”

“I was dangerous, so they got rid of me. Pretty sure I said that already.” Michael stated. His trademark aggression dripped out his mouth, with every word.

“How long have you guys been here?” Alabama asked.

“Couple of years, probably.” Ray said.

“Since Invention crashed?”

“Yep.” He affirmed.

“Me too!” The green AI, that had been watching the encounter, announced. “It was bloody boring.”

The look that Alabama shot the AI was easy to miss. It lasted for a split second, before the Freelancer diverted his attention back to the other lads. It had been intended to quiet Gavin down. Freelancers often directed it at AI. They weren’t supposed to interact, after all. Ray had always hated that idea.

If it was permitted, he would probably have asked who the new AI was. He had known Alabama since his birth. Jack had always been his AI. When had he gotten a new one?

Ray’s musing was interrupted, when the Freelancer spoke, again.

“Do you guys know what happened to Nevada and Jersey?” Ray looked away from the Freelancer, directing his attention to the floor, instead. Michael shrugged.

“Pretty sure Jersey’s fine. Asshole barely even put up a fight.”

“Nevada’s dead.” Ray reported, still keeping his eyes locked on the ground.

“How’d he go?” Alabama sounded genuinely confused. As if no one had told him what had happened. It was not very surprising. Project Freelancer, and anything affiliated with it, had always been secretive. They probably just hadn’t felt it relevant enough to share.

“Washington found us, while Joel was trying to blow a hole in the side of the ship. That kind of sucked.” He had to admit, that was the understatement of the century. Even as the most ridiculed agent in Project Freelancer, Washington had easily overpowered them.

“You were caught by Wash?”

“Yeah, he said that already.” Michael cut in, before the brown man could reply.

“So Nevada’s dead. That sucks dicks.” Ray shrugged. There was no response to that that would be fitting.

“Let’s just get down to business, alright? What do you want with us?” Michael asked.

“Freelancer fell. I’m here to recover you guys.”

“Why?”

“We don’t want people like the Meta getting his hands on Freelancer technology. So, they’re sending me to get it.” Alabama explained.

Michael flickered out of view, and reappeared directly in front of Alabama’s face. Michael looked more angry than Ray had seen him, since he had been apprehended by the guards.

“Look, I don’t know who the hell this Meta guy is. I don’t really give a shit. But, you better not fuck with us, alright? If you screw us over, you’ll be double fucked. Understand?” The purple AI demanded. Alabama took a step back. Ray could wager that he must look terrified under his helmet. Michael could be intimidating, when he wanted to be.

“Uh, yeah. I get it.” He definitely sounded terrified.

“Good.” Michael flickered out of existence, and this time remained that way. Ray shrugged, apologetically. He decided to follow Michael’s lead, and shut down his projection.

Alabama just stood there, confused, for a few more seconds.

****  
  



	6. The Calmer the Times...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had a little bit of an issue, where it told me I had an extra chapter (did not) and I went to fix it, and accidentally deleted chapter five. I've since reposted it, but I lost your comments, so sorry about that guys. I already read them, luckily, and they were all great so thanks!
> 
> To all of the people waiting for Ryan, he's coming soon. It's going to be fun.
> 
> Anyway, hope you enjoy.

“This is Recovery Three, reporting to command. Over.” The radio bled static, as it had been doing for hours. It had been so long that it had started to sting his ears. “I repeat, this is Recovery Three, reporting to command. Can you hear me, command? Over.”

The static had already become mind numbing, and now it was verging into the territory of painful. It had been the same exact sound since he had recovered the fallen AI, that was constantly screaming through his helmet. No matter how far he walked, or for how long, he always seemed to be too far out of range for his radio. Too far out to contact home base. Jack had tried to stabilize the frequency, but nothing had worked. Eventually, the AI had just given up, and told Geoff to keep walking, until he found a suitable point.

There was no point. It seemed as if this entire planet was out of range. Walking wasn’t solving anything. Sadly, the AI seemed to understand that, as well.

“So, uh, Michael wants to know when the hell we’re getting out of this place.” Ray said, after terrifying Geoff by just appearing in front of his face. Usually, Jack would at least warn him about his upcoming arrival. Ray just seemed to not be there one second, and to be there the other.

“Whenever I can get a some reception.” Geoff responded, biting back the snark that sat on the tip of his tongue. The comment that- ‘of course I know when we’ll get reception. Why wouldn’t I? I’m a genius!’ This was already far past frustrating.

“You’re not getting any? Huh. That’s weird.” His tone implied that, unlike Geoff, he had an amazing reception. Yet, for some reason, he had decided not to mention that, earlier.

“What, you are?” Geoff asked, trying to hold back his annoyance. At least until Ray nodded. “Why didn’t you mention it, before?”

“We can’t exactly help you, unless I’m installed. I don’t know really have Recovery’s number, and even then, I only receive the transmission. Only Michael can really send it out. We don’t know why. We used to be able to do both, but the second we landed it kind of broke.”

“Your brain broke?”

“Alabama, I hate to break it to you, but we don’t have brains. We have tech. Tech breaks.”

Jack appeared behind Ray, mining a knife slicing across his own throat. Apparently Jack wanted him to accept their offer. It seemed that even his guide was getting sick of seeing the same rocky landscape on a daily basis.

“I don’t really have a choice, then, do I?” Geoff said, through a long sigh.

“What, you’re going to install us?” Ray asked, incredulous. He must have offered it sarcastically, knowing that no sane Freelancer would ever accept that offer.

That was the funny thing about Project Freelancer. None of them were sane.

“I have to. I do want to get off of this fucking planet.” Geoff said. Ray looked hesitant about the idea. He shifted, and took a step back from Geoff, adding distance between them.

“You’re not going to hold onto us, though, right?” The AI asked, cautiously.

“No! You’re gonna go, the second I get back to base. They’ll make sure of that.”

Ray still looked hesitant. He studied Geoff for a second, to reassure himself that he was making the correct decision. Apparently, even AI could lose faith in humanity, the same way that some humans had lost faith in AI. Geoff hadn’t realized that they had that capacity for emotion. It was an interesting revelation.

Eventually Ray nodded his head slightly, giving himself up for installation.

“Alright. We’ll do it. I’ll go tell Michael.” He shut down his projection, and slipped back into the void.

Geoff flicked open the hidden slot in his armor, while the AI went to inform the other. There were two chips inside the compartment- both containing the data that each AI was born from. He picked them out, and rolled them in his hands for a few seconds, just contemplating what he had to do.

He didn’t know how safe these guys were. He had worked with them years ago, but he hadn’t trusted them for installation. This was new. This was dangerous. He didn’t really trust this.

He shut his eyes, and breathed quietly. This was going to hurt.

“You’re an idiot, Geoff.” Jack told him, softly.

“Yeah,” Geoff said. “I know.”

He removed his helmet, wincing as a ray of sunlight struck his eyes. He had to remember to turn off those night vision goggles. It hurt, like a bitch, whenever he took off the helmet, if he didn’t.

He removed Jack and Gavin’s chips, and placed them in the hidden slot, for safe keeping. Jack glared at him, as his projection flickered. Even if his data was still stored in Geoff’s armor, the link was weaker, now. He would have slightly more difficult time keeping himself anchored to Geoff. That would be bad.

Gavin would have a worse time, because of his lack of experience with that. Jack had dealt with this before. Gavin probably hadn’t even seen a world outside of the Mother of Invention. He was going to have extra trouble maintaining a hologram.

Geoff grinned his apology, as he attached the two AI to the newly empty slots. He slotted the helmet back over his head, sighing with relief, as the night vision protected his eyes. One form of pain was gone.

Then, the next struck.

It was probably worse than before, with Gavin. This time, instead of just installing one AI, with limited data in him, already, he was installing two AI whose memory banks were filled. Without anesthesia, or even tylenol, to numb it.

If he had thought that it was loud with two AI running through his brain, four was just unbearable. He was aware that Jack was keeping quiet, but Gavin was complaining, and Michael was yelling, and Ray was just trying to calm him down, and it was too fucking loud.

He understood why Maine was getting headaches, with an AI like Sigma. He assumed that his four AI were equal to that. Equally loud, equally angry.

He didn’t remember losing consciousness.

* * *

He did, however, remember waking up with the worst headache of his life. His vision was blurred beyond recognition, probably because of the way that his head had slammed into the ground, when he collapsed. He pushed himself onto his feet, wavering as he did so. The only thing keeping him anchored was the heavy feel of the armor, that served as an actual anchor.

The AI turned their attention to him, as he effectively cut off their conversation. The blue blur, which he assumed was Jack, appeared in front of him.

“You alright, Geoff?”

“Yeah, you’ve been out for like an hour.” Ray asked. The brown blob appeared next to him. The green one followed him. The purple figure stayed in place, shaking slightly in his rage.

Purple was definitely Michael.

“I’m fine,” Geoff assured. He wasn’t lying. His vision was already beginning to clear, and his voice didn’t sound as slurred, as he felt. He probably was fine. “What happened?”

“You passed out, like a bitch.” Michael helpfully informed him. It was becoming apparent that Michael had a way with words.

“So, the installation worked?” The Freelancer asked. Jack nodded.

“They even got the radio working.” Geoff shook his head, in denial. He didn’t hear anything.

“I don’t hear it.”

“That’s probably because it’s off.” Michael stated. He was grinning, obviously finding the situation amusing. Geoff blinked, slowly. He hadn’t even noticed that Michael had removed his helmet, again. The man looked absolutely livid.

“Then, turn it on!”

“It wasn’t us that turned it off!” Gavin said.

Jack turned away from Geoff, opting to look in any other direction, than at the confused Freelancer. Geoff was tempted to shut down the other AI, just to ask his partner what was wrong. Instead, he focused on Gavin’s interjection.

“Who did, then?”

“Rho.” Ray stated.

“Georgia’s AI?” Geoff asked. Michael opened his mouth to respond, but shut it after noticing the glare that Jack directed at him.

“Ray and Michael have been talking to him, since they crashed. Apparently, he and Georgia crashed here, with the Mother of Invention. Ray knows where he is.” Jack reported. He still hadn’t stopped glaring at the purple hologram. Michael just glared back.

“I set up the waypoint.” Ray said. He waved his hands, and a map appeared in the middle of Geoff’s visor. There was a thin brown line, that acted as a GPS. It pointed behind him.

“How far away is he?” The Freelancer asked.

“A couple of miles.” Ray said, nonchalantly.

“Goddammit.” Geoff muttered.

“We can wait a few minutes, if you need to. You’re still running a bit off, Geoff.” His partner offered. Geoff shook his head. He was fine. He was a soldier who had been trained for much worse than a quick walk. He was fine and he would be fine.

“Let’s go. The sooner we get this over with, the better.”

Geoff turned around, and started walking in the direction that he had come from. Luck sucked, sometimes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Made a few edits on this one. Realized that I'd left in the notes I'd made well editing. Sorry about that. I got rid of those. Hopefully you guys ignored the little "EDIT TIME!" at the top of the page... my notes are very professional.


	7. The Fiercer the Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're just about to hit the fun stuff. Hope you guys like this bit!

Georgia had never been an energetic man. Had never been one for random training sessions in the middle of the night, like the members of Alpha team. He had never been one for taking breaks to make jokes during missions. He just did his job, and he got back. The sooner that he was done- the better.

He had been an apathetic soldier, with no care for promotion or rank. He wasn’t loyal to Project Freelancer in any way, but he wasn’t against it. He worked for them for as long as they continued to pay him. He didn’t particularly care who he was fighting for, or what their cause was, as long as he had money in his wallet, and a new set of armor every time he broke it. As long as he had that much, he was happy.

He hadn’t even volunteered for implantation. He hadn’t even cared enough to look into it, at all. They had just pulled him into the medical ward one day, and he came out with a computer program lodged into his brain.

Rho had been an interesting character. He was a fan of loopholes, and an advocate for adventure, in a way that Georgia wasn’t. Unlike his host, he had been a fan of the ranking system, and constantly tried to force his way up the leaderboard. He had tried countless ways to boost their rank, and every single one of them was a failure. If Georgia hadn’t been his partner, he probably would have succeeded. As it was, he was going to be trapped in Charlie Team for the rest of eternity.

It wasn’t that Georgia was bad at what he did. He was amazing at it, actually. He could take down countless soldiers, easily. If he was a bad soldier, he would never have been a Freelancer. He would have been thrust into a pit of lava on his first mission.

The problem with him was that he just did not care, at all. He didn’t try to be strong. He didn’t try to climb the ranks. He didn’t take the missions that were particularly life threatening. He didn’t backtalk the direction. He didn’t bother fighting with any of the high ranking soldiers. He just didn’t care at all. He was a walking definition of the word apathy, and he was fully aware of that. Proud of it, actually.

At first, he and Rho had fought over that. The orange figure had tried to convince him to join the important missions. Missions that could easily raise him up in the ranks, if he was successful. Opportunities that had been offered to him countless times, that he had ignored. That could pair him with the likes of Carolina and Maine.

Missions that Georgia didn’t particularly want to take, because Carolina was a little too dedicated and Maine was completely unstable.

It had taken ages for Rho to finally give up, and accept that Georgia would never try to do anything, but steal from the kitchen on a daily basis.

Rho had even begun helping him with that, out of pure boredom. There was constantly security camera footage playing on Georgia’s helmet, showing a live feed of the kitchens. Constantly infrared trackers that told him when he could enter or not.

They had had many successful raids, that had resulted in a barrack full of cake, for the both Bravo and Charlie Team to share. Nu had always complained about that particular heist.

Georgia had become a hero, for a few days, because of those incidents. The barracks began to hold him to the highest esteem, as the resident chef of the groups. That had seemed to satisfy Rho, in his quest to earn rank. At least, it seemed to.

Despite popular belief, Georgia had been aware of Rho’s nightly expeditions. He never forced Rho to shut down at night, like some of the other Freelancers had. He allowed Rho to wander the Mother of Invention, free from interruption. He really didn’t care enough to stop him. Rho was a hologram. There was no actual damage that he could cause to the ship, outside of Georgia’s armor.

The Director had spent ages chastising him about it. That he shouldn’t allow AI to run rampant, or they could get into a conversation with another AI, and apparently that would topple the entire organization. Georgia really hadn’t cared about that. What would Rho do? Blow up the ship, with the magic power of civility and friendship?

It had taken him over a year and a jetpack to realize that he had been an idiot when he had ignored the Director. If he had listened to the Director, he probably wouldn’t have been barreling down, into the middle of a canyon, on an irrelevant planet, listening to the psychotic laughter of his rogue AI.

Yeah, he had been an idiot. He was probably going to die, because of it. At least, he wouldn’t have to listen to the Director whining about the law, anymore.

* * *

Geoff had probably been walking for at least a half an hour. The AI had been quiet, for most of the time. Occasionally Michael, Gavin, and Ray would break the silence, with a short and humorous conversation, that was always cut off by laughter. The three AI had really bonded, fairly quickly, during their expedition.

In any other situation, Geoff would have told them to stop talking. To stop breaking every single rule in the Recovery handbook.

Now, he didn’t really care, if they followed it. He cared about his own AI, not these three news additions. He wouldn’t get in trouble for their faults, but he would for Jack’s.

As long as they made it back to base within a reasonable amount of time, Geoff would be happy.

“How far are we?” He asked to the blue figure on his shoulder.

“A few minutes away.” Jack responded. It had been the first time that he had spoken, since they had set off, Geoff noticed. He seemed oddly solemn, during their trek. Geoff didn’t mention it.

Michael muttered something, but it was too quiet for any of them to hear. Which, Geoff had to admit, was a good thing. It meant that his ears weren’t permanently damaged by the installations. He could still hear on a spectrum, and their screaming from earlier actually had been screaming. That was always a positive.

The next few minutes were met with utter silence. Even the lads had decided to halt their laughter, as they walked through the final leg of the adventure.

Geoff watched the waypoint slowly run out, trickling down to the brown flag on the edge of a mountain, until he was standing directly in front of a crevice in the ground. As they reached it, Ray turned off the map, finally freeing Geoff’s vision.

Geoff looked around, searching for Georgia’s iconic green armor. There was nothing, but the same snowy and dull landscape, surrounded by the same metal bits that had claimed this planet for their own. He searched for a few minutes, in the empty white landscape, before coming to the only conclusion that was left.

“He’s in the fucking canyon, isn’t he?”

“Bingo! He got it, Ray!” Michael exclaimed, grinning at the other hologram.

“God fucking dammit. How are we supposed to get down there?” Geoff complained. Jack sighed, a loud and drawn out exclamation. Before Geoff could ask why, there were two blue shields forming out of the gauntlets of his armor.

“At night, we ride!” Ray said, confirming exactly what Geoff was worried about.

“I’m supposed to go sledding on my arms?”

“Like this,” Jack said. He brought his arms in front of his face, as close as he possibly could without actually smacking himself with them. Holographic shields formed over them, and that were large enough to cover his entire body. “Just try not to land on our backups. That’d be bad.”

Geoff mimicked Jack’s position. It was sloppy, but it covered most of him. His legs were outside of the range, but everything else was protected. If he fell now, he would _probably_ survive.

“Could you at least extend them a little?”

“No, that’s all I can go.” There was a genuine apologetic look on his face, but Geoff really didn’t care enough to accept it.

“Your plans suck, Jack.” He chastised. Jack shrugged.

“Just building off of yours, Geoff.”

Geoff sighed, and shut his eyes as tightly as he could. If he was going to die, he’d really rather not witness it. He had never been one to want to watch his own death. That would be even worse than the situation he was already in.

He took in a deep breath, barely managing to keep himself from running away, and yelling “No fucking thank you!” to the four AI. Barely managing to keep from shedding his armor, and finding some sort of jetpack and flying off of that planet. That was probably a safer alternative than sliding headfirst down a canyon.

Jack gave him an assuring smile, while Gavin let out a nervous laugh. Ray had a smile on his face, as if he couldn’t wait to go ‘sledding’, and Michael just looked apathetic to the entire situation.

Geoff slumped forward, and jumped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In a couple of chapters, they start getting a little bit longer, as we hit more plot related stuff (honestly, I remember them being longer than three pages each. A lot of editing happens to push them past 1k words. Damn you past me- making me work hard now! Damn you!). This one’s kind of just exploring backstory, mostly? But, after next chapter we’ll mostly be done with exposition. Other than one little itsy bitsy plot line, we should mostly be on the road to fun stuff. I’m gonna shut up before I spoil.  
> Anyway, ignore my rambling. Hope you guys enjoyed!


	8. Alliances Never Go As Planned...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And two months later...

Okay, really, that was the most painful experience of his life. It was beyond the installations of four different AI, beyond birth. Beyond any other pain that he had once considered to be extreme.

Crashing headfirst down the side of a canyon hurt. It hurt like nothing he had ever felt. He probably should have expected that, but it had stung a lot more than he could have imagined. His armor barely acted as any sort of a shield. It took a slight brunt of the hit, but most of the impact went straight into his skull. Even Jack, who normally shrugged off Geoff’s complaints, seemed to recognize that.

“Full body scanning, offline. AI control, offline. Drop shield, offline. I’m working with minimal actual scanning methods, but from what I’ve seen, you’re not injured beyond a few bruises.” Jack reported. Geoff breathed a sigh of relief. Recovery could fix every broken piece of his armor- they had the technology for that. A broken neck was a great deal harder to fix. He could deal with his armor being broken, but his body was off limits.

“Is everyone alright?” Geoff asked. He tried to keep the worry out of his tone. He did not want these AI to be damaged. As much as he hated to admit it, he was starting to like them. They could be annoying bastards, but they were good company.

“Michael and I are good.” Ray said.

“Toppers.” Gavin announced, sounding a little too excited to have been dropped off of he edge of the mountain. Geoff almost expected him to say ‘Let’s go again’, and he would probably have deinstalled the AI if he had.

“I’m fine.” Jack said. His form flickered slightly, dimming a little, but Geoff didn’t mention it. If the AI said that he was fine, he was fine. Geoff had learned to trust his judgement, after years of working with him. Jack understood more about AI than Geoff did. Jack had been the one to pay attention to the AI lessons back in Project Freelancer, while Geoff had played games on his tablet. Those had been very productive days. Geoff had beaten numerous levels of Peggle while he was in that classroom.

In a slight response to Jack, Geoff nodded slightly, and pushed himself onto his feet. He swayed dangerously, and almost crashed into the ground once more. He definitely had to stop injuring himself, so much. It was starting to become a common occurrence.

“Anything else damaged?” He asked, slightly concerned with the way he couldn’t stay on his feet.

“Your arms are a little bruised, and you’re flooding with adrenaline, but you’re fine. Full body scanning, AI control, and the drop shield is offline.” Jack repeated.

“I need a raise.” Geoff turned his attention to the blue AI, anticipating a humorous response. Jack had never failed to give him one, in the past.

“Does Project Freelancer offer overtime?” Jack asked. He didn’t move as he spoke, like he usually did. Instead, he stood as stagnant as ever. He didn’t bob, or move his helmet, to signify his speech, the way that he was supposed to. According to Jack, it made them seem more human. He wouldn’t stop doing that.

“What?” Geoff asked, and Jack tensed, slightly.

“Does Project Freelancer offer overtime?” Again, Jack didn’t move. He simply stared at Geoff, standing completely still.

“Jack, are you alright?” Jack nodded slightly, and Geoff could imagine a grin behind his helmet.

“Turn around, Geoff.” This time, he did move. With a slight tilt of his head, staring at something somewhere behind Geoff. It was a move that definitely wasn’t a signal that he had spoken.

Geoff clenched his fists. If there was someone behind him, it was likely going to be a threat. Creatures that could mimic voices and hid behind him often were enemies, and he didn’t want to be caught off guard if it was.

He could attempt a melee, if he moved quickly enough. He couldn’t arm himself, without alerted the enemy, but he could punch him. His armor was thick enough that one punch could knock out any enemy.

He spun around, swinging his fist as he moved. It spun through an red blob, and crashed into the wall, shattering it into miniature pieces of it. He cursed, ripping his hand away from the rock, as pain raced through it, rapidly. He hadn’t hit his enemy. Whatever Jack had been looking at had moved too quickly for him to strike. It had probably been anticipating his attack.

“Woah, there. Calm down. Here, I thought we were allies.” The voice (that he was starting to think was slightly deeper than Jack’s) said. There was an air of familiar humor in the voice.

Geoff swung around again, ready to strike. He was met with the sight of a red hologram, that was floating directly in front of his face. The AI that Geoff probably should have expected to see, considering that was who he went down there for. The hologram lacked any armor, and instead wore a red suit, and a kilt. On his head rested a slanted gold crown, with a large crack running from the side to the base. For an AI, it was incredibly odd clothing choice.

For a human, it was also incredibly odd clothing choice, now that Geoff thought about it.

Despite the AI’s new garb, Geoff could still recognize this hologram. Could recognize the voice that matched Jack’s almost perfectly. Georgia had always had him activated, even when he was at the mess hall. Despite what the Director ordered, Georgia allowed the AI to roam free. It was an annoyance to other agents who also had AI, who couldn’t let theirs roam free, but it made them recognizable. Everyone on the Mother of Invention had known the AI and his host.

This was Rho, and Geoff was positive that Rho had never looked like that. He had worn the same armor as ever other AI had. He did not have a kilt, the last time Geoff saw him. If he had, he would have been mocked out of every mission. He hadn’t had a weird crown on his head. He hadn’t looked anything like this.

He definitely hadn’t glowed red, before. Rho had been a bright shade of orange. Geoff didn’t know what had changed that- didn’t know that it was possible to change that. Otherwise, he would have changed Gavin’s color scheme, because it really did burn his eyes to look at him for too long.

“Like the getup?” Rho asked, with that familiar humor back in his voice. “I do, too. Looks pretty cool, right?”

“Where did you get that?”

“Don’t really know. Happened before Georgia left, I think.” Rho said.

“Who are you?” Gavin asked. Rho grinned at him, with more teeth than was absolutely necessary.

“I didn’t introduce myself, right. I should probably do that. I’m Ryan.” Rho stated. He held his hand out, obviously intending to shake hands with the other AI. Gavin just stared at the offering, slightly confused.

“I’m Gavin.” The green soldier sounded cautious, and Geoff didn’t blame him for that. There was something weird about the red AI. They probably should be cautious around him.

Rho (Ryan?) put down his hand, after a few moments. He turned his attention to Michael and Ray, and gave them the same creepy grin as he had shown Gavin.

“Michael and Ray, right? Good to see you guys. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

“Yeah. How have you been, Rho?” Ray asked, lacking any of the caution that the rest of them had shown.

“Ryan.” Ryan’s glow faded slightly, and his smile shrunk back to nothingness.

“Right. Ryan. How have you been, Ryan?” Ray repeated. The red shine returned, as did the grin. It was as if his moment of pure annoyance had never occurred.

Had Rho- Ryan- acted like that before? Geoff couldn’t even remember. It had been too many years.

“I’m good. It’s been a little boring, though. Surprisingly, being trapped in a canyon is not very fun.”

“Yeah.” Ray trailed off. He sounded unsure of himself, and Geoff couldn’t blame him for that. Ryan was not acting normal, at all.

“So, first things first,” Ryan turned his attention to the Freelancer. Geoff shrunk back, under his gaze. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

“I’m to recover you.”

“Yeah, nah. I’d rather stay here. It may be a little boring, but it’s nice in this hole. I’ve got rocks, some rocks, more rocks, other rocks, and even more rocks! Really, it’s a great place to live.”

That was more unexpected than anything else that had occurred, so far. Ordinarily, AI didn’t specifically request to remain behind, unless it was for the success of the mission. They were always compliant, when it came to recovery. This was beyond strange.

“I have to recover you, Rh-Ryan. I can’t just leave you.”

“Why not?”

“It’s my job.”

“And it’s my job not to crash people into giant spaceships. You have to learn to ignore rules, sometimes.”

“You crashed someone into a window?” Michael asked, suddenly. Ryan nodded, his grin stretching even more across his face.

“Georgia was being annoying.”

In that one sentence, one of the few questions that had remained, after the fall of Project Freelancer, was answered. What happened to Georgia? His AI had crashed him into a ship. It wasn’t as noble an ending as Geoff had imagined for the Freelancer. He had imagined him jetpacking back to Earth, and shedding his armor for the last time. He had expected him to leave Rho behind on some backwater planet, or hell- even take him with him! He hadn’t expected him to be betrayed by his best friend.

“You killed Georgia?”

“No, I didn’t kill Georgia. The jetpack killed him. I just guided him a little wrong. It happens.” There was no remorse from Ryan. There was just a blatant apathy that was admittedly a little bit terrifying.

“He- Why?” Geoff took a step back, feeling a little unnerved by standing next to an apparently murderous AI.

“I told you. He was being annoying. Someone had to shut him down.”

“Wait, Georgia got got by Rho?” Michael interjected, amazement evident in his voice.

“Ryan. My name is Ryan. How hard is that to understand?” His grin had slipped off of his face. He was obviously beginning to be personally offended by their mistakes. Which wasn’t safe for any of them, if he wasn’t lying about murdering his Freelancer.

“Ryan, I have to bring you back to base. It’s my job. The counselor-” Geoff began, but was interrupted, when Ryan’s red glow began to fade, again.

“The counselor. You’re working with the counselor?” The AI’s voice had gone cold, as a cold anger ran through him.

“Yes?”

“You’re working with Freelancer.”

Ryan had always been a creepy person. Geoff had mentioned that enough to Georgia, over the years. Ryan had loved dark humor, back then, and he was much worse, now. He was unnerving to be around.

This was just terrifying. He looked absolutely psychotic. As if, at one wrong phrase, that Geoff had already uttered, he would cut Geoff’s throat, and leave him to rot with Georgia, in this canyon. Geoff didn’t even think that that was beyond his abilities, anymore. After all, he had managed to kill one of the best Freelancers in Charlie Team. He wasn’t exactly safe to be around.

Gavin let out an inhuman noise, and took a step back from the other AI. Geoff sent him a mental command to log off. To his relief, Gavin followed the order, after a slight moment of hesitation.

“Freelancer fell, Ryan.” Jack said. Geoff was thankful, for once, that his AI interjected. He was too afraid to say anything, himself.

“So who are you working for?”

“We’re working for Recovery. We’re not part of Freelancer, anymore.”

“There’s a difference?”

“Freelancer’s gone. There’s a lot of differences.”

To Geoff’s relief, Ryan’s glow returned to its ordinary levels of brightness. His sociopathic glare settled down, into a more human expression. It was as if the insanity had been drained from him.

Right now, Geoff truly believed that Ryan was absolutely crazy. He was acting too strange for him to be completely ordinary. He’d never seen anyone have as many mood swings, as he had had during this conversation.

There was something fundamentally wrong with this AI.

“We’re supposed to bring you back to base.” Geoff muttered, barely bringing himself to speak loud enough to be heard. He was becoming truly afraid of Ryan.

“Not going to happen. I’m pretty happy in this canyon.”

“So, what, you’re just going to wait here, forever?” Ray asked.

“Nah,” Ryan said, simply. “Just until the Meta gets here.”


	9. And Neither Does Friendship

_“So, what, you’re just going to wait here, forever?” Ray asked._

_“Nah,” Ryan said, simply. “Just until the Meta gets here.”_

The statement was met with silence from the five others that stood in the canyon, and a grin from the speaker. This was an unexpected turn of events, to say the least. Not only was Ryan apparently a murderer, (if that wasn’t bad enough) but he was also apparently allied with the greatest threat that a Freelancer could face. They were stuck in a canyon with a Meta-allied murderer.

Geoff had always considered himself to be lucky. It seemed that, now, his luck had finally run dry.

“You’re with the Meta?” Jack asked.

“I plan to be. He hasn’t received of my any transmissions, but I’m waiting.” Ryan shrugged, nonchalantly. He sounded bored, like he was just talking about taking out his dry cleaning, and not allying himself with the #1 cause of death in Freelancers.

“Who the smegging hell is the Meta?” Gavin asked, and Geoff suddenly remembered the fact that Gavin had never  been installed with anyone, before him. The green figure has less experience with the Project than any of them.

“He used to be called Agent Maine,” Ryan explained, quickly. “But Sigma told him about what they’re doing to Alpha, and he decided to revolt against Project Freelancer.”

The four AI, that were installed into Geoff’s mind, already seemed enthralled by Ryan’s short explanation. While it was a skewed version of the events that had actually taken place, Geoff could not fault the fragments for their interest in the idea. Any time the Alpha was mentioned, AI tended to lose interest in any other topic. There was something about him that always managed to draw their attention.

“What are they doing to Alpha?” Gavin asked, with enough concern to make Geoff worried.

“They’re torturing him. That’s how they made us. They tortured him, until he had to give up a part of himself just to stay sane. A split of emotion. That’s what we are. Fragments of him, that he had to eliminate.”

When the Program had fallen, the only explanation that he’d been given was that Alpha had been kidnapped. Agent Texas had taken him and hidden him on some backwater planet, where even the combined forces of the UNSC couldn’t find him.

This was a version of the story that he’d never heard even alluded to. Yet, it seemed to make a lot more sense, with the way that the Director was shamed after the fall of the Project.

It was probably an incorrect version of events, since Ryan hadn’t proved himself to be entirely credible, but if it was true, he could understand why they shut down Project Freelancer. Any program that could come up with that idea would have to be drenched in corruption. Torture didn’t exactly show of stability.

“How do you know that?” Michael asked.

“Sigma told me.” Ryan stated. He flickered, when the words left his mouth, before he stabilized, again. It reminded Geoff of a lightbulb about to die, flickering slightly before it finally gave up.

“You knew Sigma?” Geoff asked.

“We talked, sometimes.” There was something there, under Ryan’s calculated apathy, that Geoff simply couldn’t place. Something that the AI had hidden, even in so few words.

“Do you even know what he and the Meta did to Carolina?” Based on the expression on Ryan’s face, the awkward stare, Geoff could assume that he was not aware, so he continued. “He tore out her AI, and killed her.”

“Did she deserve it?” That time, the message under Ryan’s apathy was clear. The rogue AI didn’t give a damn one way or another.

“No!”

The AI shrugged, again, showing off his continued apathy towards the situation. The murder of an innocent soldier didn’t phase him, in the slightest. Nor did the capture of two AI, either.

“How many of us has the Meta proclaimed, so far?” He asked.

“I don’t know.” He said it with a shrug.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Michael said. “Can we go back to the ‘torture Alpha’ thing, now? I mean, did they let him go, or- did they- I don’t know, kill him? Or do they still have him?”

“I don’t know,” Ryan muttered, and that slight edge to his voice was back. “Ended up here, before I could find out.”

Geoff scoffed. “Ended up here” was not the phrase that he would use, in this situation. Personally, he would have said “After I murdered my partner, and fell into a canyon”.

His outburst drew Gavin’s attention. Gavin stared at him, with squinted eyes, and watching him for any suspicious movements. The AI teleported in front of Geoff’s face, to continue his study.

“Do you know where he is?” Gavin asked, suddenly.

The question drew the attention of the others. They all faced him, awaiting his reaction. Even Ryan, whosee eyebrows were suddenly furrowed.

He couldn’t tell if the question had malicious intent, or not. They all looked to be aggravated, to say the least.

Jack was the only one of them that didn’t look suspicious. Geoff hadn’t expected him to be. Jack had always been a loyal friend. He trusted that Jack wouldn’t believe that he would hold something like that from him. Geoff was the type of person to share everything with his friends. He would never have hoarded information like that.

Ray’s expression was unreadable, due to the helmet that was obscuring his vision. From what Geoff could see of him- the tenseness in his shoulders, the way his arms were crossed over his chest- the AI was definitely questioning the integrity of his host.

Michael was by far the angriest out of all of them, with the exception of Ryan. It seemed that he had already decided to blame Geoff for this, and he looked ready to punish him for it, too. He had his fists clenched at his sides, shaking slightly, as he watched Geoff. He looked like he was ready to remove his rifle from its holster, and shoot Geoff in the leg, at any moment.

Geoff didn’t actually know if the holographic bullets could injure him. He hoped not to find out.

He held up his hands, in a gesture of surrender. It was better to show them that he didn’t mean harm, before they attacked. Hopefully, now, they wouldn’t consider him to be target practice.

“I don’t even know who Alpha is,” Geoff said, distilling every ounce of honesty into his voice as he could. “Why would I know where he is, now?”

“You work with the Counselor. He would have told you, wouldn’t he?” Ryan said.

“No. No, he wouldn’t have. I’m not exactly top rank. I’m low as dicks, dude!”

“So, what you’re saying is you don’t know where he is.”

“No!” Out of the corner of his eye, he could see his AI relaxing. While Michael still looked tense, the others had believed him. While it was a success that the others trusted him, they weren’t the ones that looked as if they were ready to shoot him. “I really don’t know.”

“Could you ask?” Ryan asked.

“What?” The orange figure sighed, and pointed at Geoff’s helmet.

“You have a radio,” He said, slowly, as if he was trying to paint the picture for Geoff. “Can’t you call them, and- I don’t know- ask them?”

“The radio’s not working.” Geoff said. Ryan turned to face the floor, blocking his expression from view. He started emitting small, almost silent, noises, in a rapid pace, and his shoulder were shaking and- wait. Was he laughing? “What?”

“Sorry,” The AI said, once he gained control over his laughter. “That was just- You’re really not that smart, are you?”

“What? Why?”

“You’re on the radio with me. You’re on the wrong frequency. You’ve been on the wrong frequency for weeks.” Ryan was still grinning, obviously finding the situation humorous.

“Then how come I didn’t get your message, until Ray and Michael showed up?”

“I’m not an idiot. I don’t just advertise myself to any random asshole. I use finesse, in my messages. I know them. I didn’t exactly know you, very well, did I?”

Geoff didn’t bother mentioning that, yes, Ryan did know who he was. He had worked with Georgia on a regular basis. Of course, they had known each other.

“You were masking the radio?”

The AI sighed, as if that was the most ridiculous question that Geoff could have asked. He slumped forward, and rolled his eyes towards the sky. His previous humor had dissipated, already.

“No, I was handing it out to the entire planet. I’ve been trying to get captured.” Ryan drawled. Geoff could almost feel the sarcasm dripping out of his mouth, like some tangible force.

“Ryan’s getting snarky.” Jack observed.

“Full of the vin.” Michael agreed.

“Haven’t had to deal with that,” Ryan gestured to Geoff. “For a while. I’m out of practice.”

“Hey!” Geoff exclaimed. The urge to defend himself was becoming significantly higher, the more that Ryan spoke.

“What?” Ryan asked, oblivious to the insult that he had dealt.

“Just,” Geoff paused, holding back a sigh. He didn’t want to insult this AI, but he also did not want to continue the topic. Who knew when it might offend Ryan? He decided to settle on the topic that Ryan was comfortable with. “Where’s Georgia?”

The rogue AI looked away from them, but the grin didn’t slip from his face. He nodded to the edge of the canyon.

“Careful, though. It smells over there.” It was disturbing how humorous Ryan found the situation. Geoff could hear him chuckling at his own joke, body shaking slightly, even as he turned his attention to the edge of the canyon.

“You’re a sick bastard, Ryan.” Geoff muttered. Ryan thought about it for a second, before shaking his head.

“I don’t think we can get sick. It’d be a bit hard, considering that we’re made of numbers.”

“Malware can still get us.” Jack pointed out, and there was a fearful edge to his voice, like that was the worst possible situation. Like it should be something that all AI should be scared of.

“It’d have to be pretty advanced. I’m pretty sure we’re top-of-the-line technology.” The hidden comment, shielded by Ryan’s apathy, was back.

“It doesn’t matter. Just- Ray, is there anything nearby?” Geoff asked.

“I’ll do it.” Gavin said. Before Ray had a chance to move, Gavin flicked his hand across the space in front of him. Quickly, a green hologram formed over the area surrounding them, mapping out the ground surrounding them. It was a bleak area, with nothing around the six of them, but a small blip a few feet away from them. Georgia.

“I’m surprised he even shows up,” Ryan mused. “He was pretty fucked up. I thought it would have destroyed the radar. Interesting.”

“How fucked is he, Ryan?” Michael asked, voice cracking halfway through the sentence.

“You’ll see.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about this week. Editing was kind of weak on my part, because I had to rush to get this chapter out. Good news though! I was rushing, because I've been trying to finish a new story, that should be posted soon. I'm about 20 pages in already, so look out for that!  
> Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed!


	10. Moments Best Forgotten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember when I said they would get longer? I have delivered.
> 
> Anyway, hope you guys enjoy!

For some reason that Geoff couldn’t (and didn’t want to) fathom, Ryan had followed them to the corpse of his host. Maybe it was because he enjoyed what he was done. Maybe there was something in him that wanted to pay his respects. Maybe he just wanted to see a bloodied corpse, again. Geoff had no idea.

The red AI hadn’t allowed his grin to slip, for a second. His smile was starting to give credit to the more malicious reasons as to why he would have followed them. He just walked alongside Geoff, allowing the Freelancer to lead to way towards his partner.

It felt disturbingly like Geoff was being led to his own death. Like Ryan was a guard, planning to lead him towards an electric chair, and like he would laugh the whole way through. But, he had felt that way since they had met this strange version of the AI.

Geoff had no idea what had happened to Ryan, but the change had been significant. He had liked Ryan, before Freelancer had fallen. He had had an amusing sense of humor, and he had always had some smartass comment to jibe someone with. If anything, he was a floating ball of comedy that followed Georgia everywhere.

Now, that couldn’t be said. It seemed like he had left Georgia behind, and along the way, he had left behind any visage of humor or morality. If he’d ever had it at all, that is.

It was likely that this was all just some sort of game to him. He’d played along, until the second that it had started to bore him, so he changed the rules. Now, it was less of a game of hide and seek, and more of a game of Clue.

“So, is there any reason why we’re going to check out Georgia, or…” Ray muttered, just loud enough that Geoff could hear him.

“We need his enhancement,” Geoff said, honestly. As much as he considered Georgia an ally, back in the day, paying him respects wasn’t his top priority. Death wasn’t exactly a foreign concept to a Freelancer, after all. It had been inevitable that one of them would die. They had signed up for that, after all. It wasn’t fitting to mourn, when they were still at battle. That happened later, when they weren’t still in the line of fire. “I’m supposed to bring it back to Recovery.”

“That’s why you’re here?” Ryan asked, with an edge of humor that Geoff couldn’t place. There wasn’t anything to laugh about, anymore (and maybe it wasn’t Ryan that had lost his sense of humor). “Well, you’re in luck. That’s the one thing I didn’t destroy. We’ll need that, once the Meta gets here.”

Ryan’s attraction towards the greatest danger that Geoff had ever heard of was another off-putting quality that had appeared, since Georgia’s disappearance. The AI had never shown any signs of loyalty to the Meta, before. He had been as apathetic to it as all of the AI had been. There had been no reason to ally himself with the Meta, so suddenly. Geoff had no idea what could have turned the tides so quickly.

Ryan had been trapped in a canyon, since before the destruction of Project Freelancer. He should never have known that the Meta even existed. The timing didn’t make sense.

Geoff didn’t mention his confusion. If he had, the AI would probably give him another smarmy comment, and that wouldn’t get them anywhere.

“So, the enhancement’s safe, then.” He said, eventually.

“Perfectly accessible. I made sure Georgia landed on his head, instead of his back. It’s completely undamaged.”

Geoff wanted to ask how a hologram had managed to ensure that a living being landed a specific way. Instead, he looked away from the psychopathic AI, and kept walking.

The dot on Gavin’s hologram was steadily growing closer, as they traversed the canyon. With each step, the tiny blip grew larger, and with each second, the AI in his head became more and more unnerved.

Gavin, in particular, was practically shitting himself with fear. His glow was duller than ever, like he was about to shut himself off the second that the situation required it. Geoff planned to require it as soon as they reached the body.

He wasn’t surprised that Georgia’s body was so close to where he landed. If Ryan was able to make contact with them, it meant that his body had to be nearby. They were linked, after all. He was pretty certain that Ryan couldn’t have managed to take his back-up out of Georgia’s helmet. Not unless he had somehow grown a physical body, in his off days, and Geoff was pretty positive that that was impossible.

But then again, he had thought that it was impossible for an AI to kill its host, and Ryan had proven him wrong on that front. It wa possible- likely, even- that he had other seeming impossibilities hidden up his sleeve.

The other AI, with the exception of Gavin, all seemed to be as confused as he was over Ryan’s sudden personality change. There was a wariness in the air that there hadn’t been when they had all been alone. A slight hesitation that said that they trusted this new Ryan as little as Geoff did.

Their apprehension was warning enough that this type of change wasn’t common for AI.

If Geoff wasn’t afraid of Ryan, he would have mentioned that, aloud. He would have asked him something- anything- about this. Instead, he directed his gaze at anything, but Ryan, and refused to speak to him. Ryan was too creepy to infuriate. It felt like if he angered him, he might as well sign his own death warrant.

It was due to his gaze being located on the ground, that he noticed the streak of red on the floor, before anyone else.

“Log off, guys.” He ordered. None of the AI, not even Gavin, listened.

He noticed Ryan instantly flicker out of existence, once the order left his mouth. The rogue AI reappeared, nanoseconds later, with his hands clenched into fists. The smirk had slipped off of his face, and there was an anger on his face that Geoff couldn’t trace. It made as little sense as anything relating to him had, lately.

“Geoff, we’re not kids. We can handle some blood.” Jack said, dragging Geoff’s attention back to the bloody ground, and away from the red AI.

“Jack, I’m ordering you. Log the fuck off.”

“AI control offline.” Jack reported. Michael gave out a short laugh.

“You guys are ridiculous.” Geoff said, with his annoyance clear in his voice. Jack shrugged, in response- a picture of apathy.

“I’ve been influenced by you.” The blue figure said. Even without looking at him, Geoff could hear the grin in his voice.

If they hadn’t been in the presence of an insane murderer, and a dead body, Geoff might have felt touched. Due to said presence, he held up his finger, and knelt down in front of the blood.

It was as close to normal, and as close to comforting, as this situation could get.

“Just do an analysis of this.”

“It’s Georgia,” Ryan cut in, and that light humor was back. “I swear.”

Despite Ryan’s assurance, Jack still ran the test, as well as he could without physically interacting with the sample. Which, surprisingly, was usually fairly accurately.

“He’s right. That’s Georgia.”

“Who else would it have been? We’re in the middle of a canyon! It’s not like people stumble in here all the time!” Ryan exclaimed. He sounded offended that they wouldn’t believe him.

“Anything else in there?” Geoff asked, ignoring Ryan’s input, like it was some useless background noise.

“No. It’s clean.”

“No, actually, I drugged it. I formed drugs out of thin air, and slipped it into his bloodstream. That helped me a lot.” Ryan said, dryly.

Michael was grinning, and barely holding back his laughter. He, out of all of them, seemed the least affected by the murder.

Geoff sighed, and pushed himself back up to his feet.

He had to find the rest of Georgia, if he wanted to find his enhancement. Even if the AI were stubborn assholes, he still had a job to perform. Whether or not the experience would scar any of them for life, was to be discovered.

He crept forward, following the streaks of blood closer to the edge of the canyon.

“Why was he bleeding in a line?” Ray asked. “Shouldn’t it have been just a splat, or something?”

“It took him a while to die. He was crawling for a few hours.” Ryan said, with a shrug. At the description, Gavin let out a pitiful gag, that sounded like a baby bird being trampled on. In any other situation, Geoff would have laughed at it.

“Jesus Christ, Ryan.” Jack muttered.

“What? I told him to die, quicker. That was not my fault.”

“You told someone to die, quicker?” Jack asked. His voice held a clear mixture of awe and fear. It was an interesting combination.

“Yeah, he didn’t listen very well.”

“Jesus, Ryan.” Michael muttered, without any of his previous laughter.

Jack slipped into silence, after that, along with the rest of the crew. No one wanted to speak, as they followed the trail of blood to Georgia’s corpse. It wasn’t the most light hearted moment that they had ever had.

Well, most of them didn’t want to speak. Ryan seemed particularly happy to fill the silence, alone.

“So, how’s Freelancer been doing, since I’ve been gone? Are they still torturing innocents?” Ryan asked. He flickered, again, as soon as he finished the sentence.

“Freelancer fell,” Geoff said. “It’s gone.”

“Did the UNSC suddenly give a fuck about how fucked the program was, or did they just decide to tear it down?”

“Agent Texas destroyed the Mother of Invention,” Jack began.

“I’m so shocked.” Ryan said, sarcastically. He gestured to the piles of metal surrounding them, that originated from the broken shit above them. Jack ignored the interruption.

“The Chairman looked into it, and found out what Maine did to Wyoming,” Ryan flickered, again, for a split second. It was barely even a noticeable change. “He shut it down, after that. He said that the program was too riddled with psychological abuse on human beings, which was against UNSC principals.”

Geoff ignored the final half of Jack’s explanation. Instead, he decided to focus on Ryan’s reaction to the new information.

“What was that?” He asked.

“What was what?” Ryan said. There was a hidden fury in his expression, that was barely even noticeable. He definitely did not want Geoff to continue that line of questioning.

Geoff didn’t care.

“You kind of- flickered. You keep flickering.”

“Yeah, what’s up with that? It’s kind of weird.” Ray said.

“It’s not important.” Ryan said, dismissively. He looked ready to move on with the conversation, but Geoff cut in, before he could.

“When did that start?”

“I don’t know. Do you think I keep records of all my bodily functions? You want me to write down every time that a new number appears on screen, or something?”

“What number?” Geoff asked. Ryan sighed, and rolled his eyes, as if that was the stupidest question that Geoff could have asked.

“We’re made of numbers. When we look at things, we see numbers. Numbers make up our everything,” He said, slowly, drawing it out, as if Geoff was a seven year old, that he needed to explain science to. “Sometimes, new numbers pop up. That’s because the system changes.”

Geoff clenched his mouth shut, holding back a sarcastic response. Ryan hadn’t threatened them, yet, but he still felt that the AI could be dangerous. He didn’t want to risk it.

“Look!” Ryan announced, suddenly, effectively cutting off the conversation. “We found him!”

Geoff spun, to face where Ryan was looking. All that he could see was a pile of metal, with drips of blood leaking out of its interior.

Gavin snapped his fingers, and the holographic tracker faded away. They had found the corpse. There was no need for a locator, anymore.

Geoff hesitantly walked forward, and wrapped his arms around a metal sheet. He lifted it, struggling under its weight, for a few seconds, before he tossed it to the side. The movement unearthed the most gruesome sight that Geoff had ever seen.

Blood was everywhere. There wasn’t a single inch of the interior that wasn’t covered with brown streaks. Georgia’s once-green armor was stained a rusty brown, just as the room around him was. The armor was cracked, and major portions of it were completely missing. Too many of Georgia’s limbs were bent in the completely wrong direction.

Geoff winced, in sympathy. That must have been terrible for Georgia. Just imagining the situation that could force a man to look like that was traumatising. Especially since, he had apparently survived long enough to crawl to the other edge of the canyon, with that many wounds.

Behind him, he could hear Gavin retching, as the young AI witnessed the disgusting display.

It wasn’t the worst sight that Geoff had ever seen (that had been on a moon in the Alzerbian solar system), but it was still terrible. It took all of his training for him to not sit down in front of the body, and heave out his lunch.

Of course, he had had hundreds of hours of training, that led him to continue doing his job, despite the corpse on the floor. For an AI, with no experience with this type of thing (or with anything, at all), it must have been terrible.

The first thing that he had done was pry off Georgia’s helmet. He hefted it into the air, wincing as the broken glass from the visor imbedded itself into his armor.

Georgia’s skull, a mutilated and broken collection of bone that couldn’t even be classified as human, anymore, rolled away from the body with a sickening crack. Geoff pretended not to notice the way that Gavin’s retching increased.

He flipped open the hidden latch, on the back of helmet. There was a single backup in the containment slots, that he instantly began to remove.

“Excuse me? What are you doing?” Ryan asked, with an urgency that hadn’t existed in him, earlier.

Geoff ignored him, and slid the backup out of the helmet. He rested it in his palm, ignoring the red sparks that shot out of it, at random intervals.

The chip must have gotten damaged in the fall, he reasoned. That might explain the random moments of flickering that Ryan was having. If a backup was broken, the AI was usually screwed. Ryan must have just gotten lucky that it hadn’t shattered, completely. It was as sound an explanation as any.

“Let go of that.” Ryan ordered, with that same panicked urgency.

Again, Geoff ignored him. He stretched out his own arm, and flicked open the hidden compartment, under the UNSC logo. He dropped Ryan’s backup inside, and locked the compartment, again.

Despite Ryan’s wishes, Geoff had a job to do. He wasn’t going to leave an AI for the Meta, when Recovery specifically declared the Meta as an enemy. He wasn’t loyal to Recovery, but he wasn’t stupid. They would kill him, for that.

“Put it down, Alabama. I’m warning you.” Ryan threatened. His formerly cheery tone had slipped into the voice of a mad man. He clenched his fists, and took a menacing step towards Geoff.

It was a terrifying sight. He had been scared of the AI, when he had been enjoying the situation. Now, he was horrifying. Even if there was nothing that he could do to Geoff, without actually being installed.

“Log off, Rho.” Geoff ordered. Shutting Ryan off was probably the best option that he had.

Ryan froze, and unclenched his fists. His angry expression faded away, and was quickly replaced by the most terrified look that Geoff could imagine. That wasn’t normal. He should have looked _terrifying_ , not terrified. This really wasn’t making sense.

The terror faded, before Geoff could even process what had happened. Ryan slipped back into his mad visage, in the time it took for him to blink.

“How about I don’t?” Ryan offered.

“That’s an order, Rho.” Geoff pushed.

“My name isn’t Rho, Alabama.”

“Big deal, Ryan. Just log off.”

Ryan looked away, allowing the smug grin to slip back onto his face. His flickering form settled, and he relaxed, slightly.

“Sorry to report, but AI control is offline.” Ryan said, sarcasm dripping from his mouth.

Michael’s silent chuckles broke into full fledged laughter, at the response. Next to him, Ray gave out a small laugh.

“I- Shut up.” The response only led the two AI to laugh even harder.

As annoying as that moment was, and as much as Geoff hated it, it was at least slightly positive. At least the two of them weren’t focusing on Georgia, anymore. He’d rather them be distracted by a murderer than face his victim.

“Seriously, though,” Ryan said. “Put that thing back, or I swear to god, you’ll end up like my little friend there.”

Ryan flickered out of existence, and reappeared next to the mutilated corpse on the ground, to add emphasis to his statement. He prodded at the broken skull, silently.

“You’re an AI. What the hell are you gonna do to me?” Geoff asked.

“Oh, more than you’d think.”

“Geoff,” Jack said, warily watching the other AI. “I think we should listen to him.”

Geoff shook his head, and knelt down in front of the body, once more. He was just going to have to ignore the five AI. He had a job to do, and it was time to get it done. The faster that he did it, the faster he could put Rho in his own containment unit, millions of miles away from Geoff.

“Last warning, Alabama.” Ryan threatened.

Geoff rolled Georgia onto his stomach, and studied the cracked armor that shielded his enhancement. He was going to have to rip that out, somehow.

“I need a shield, Jack.” He said.

“Fine.” Ryan said. He disappeared, before materializing directly in front of Geoff. The Freelancer took a step back, surprised at the AI’s sudden appearance.

Bright red veins pulsed through his holographic form. The cracked crown, that laid tilted on his head, was practically falling off of his head, as he reached for Geoff’s helmet. He didn’t seem to notice.

Halfway through the motion, he froze in place. The veins quickly faded back to their dull red, as quickly as they had begun to glow. Ryan blinked, and took a step back from Geoff.

The AI looked more irritated, than Geoff had ever seen him. The ever-present smirk had slipped off of his face, in his annoyance. His fists were clenched at his sides, and his teeth were clenched hard enough that they would crack, if he was a human.

“What the fuck is going on?” Michael asked.

“This is just weird.” Gavin muttered.

Geoff had to agree with them both. Ryan seemed to be the strangest person that Geoff had ever met, lately.

“I’m not supposed to kill you.” Ryan declared.

“Who told you that?” Ray asked.

That was a good point, and it was something that Geoff hadn’t realized, earlier. He could have been under orders the entire time. He could have been communicating with the Meta since before they had landed.

“Do you want me to kill him?”

“I don’t really care. I’m just wondering.” Ray said, with a shrug.

“Loyal friend you have, Alabama.” Ryan jabbed.

Despite the insult, Geoff recognized that, in that moment, he was safe. Whatever order the Meta had given Ryan, it rendered Geoff safe, and Ryan weak. He might as well take advantage of that, while he could.

“Shield, Jack.” He ordered.

Jack sighed, but he activated the shield, regardless of his exasperation. He must have understood what Geoff had wanted, because he didn’t form an overshield. Instead, he created a hardlight shield, surrounding Geoff’s arm.

Geoff slammed it against Georgia’s broken armor. The force of the motion shattered the metal, sending bits of it flinging across the room. Blood exploded through the area, drenching the last inches of ground that had been left bare.

Most of Geoff’s visor was covered with blood, disrupting his view of the small cave. He wiped it off with his arm, which did more harm than good. It had turned out to be drenched, as well.

“Jesus Christ, Geoff.”  Jack muttered. The AI waved his arm, and Geoff’s shield dissipated.

“What the hell are you doing?” Gavin exclaimed, throwing himself away from the gruesome display in front of them.

“Calm down. I’m just getting the enhancement.” Geoff said. At least the jet pack was removed from the grip of Georgia’s armor. It would be less difficult to remove it, now.

“So, not only are you a kidnapper, but you’re also a grave robber. Glad to see that Freelancer hasn’t lost its corruption, since I’ve been gone.” Ryan said, with more anger than Geoff thought that a figure, that was less than six inches tall, could have.

“You killed him, in the first place.” Ray pointed out.

Ryan tilted his head, sardonically considering the statement. He obviously couldn’t have given less of a damn about what they thought of him.

“It was provoked.”

“How?”

“He was being annoying.” It was stated as if that was a completely ordinary reason to slaughter his partner. As if there was nothing wrong with it.

Geoff decided to leave the AI to handle their own arguments. He had work to do. He couldn’t focus all of his attention of Ryan, or he was never going to get this done.

He wiped away the last pieces of disconnected metal, that shielded the jet pack from his view. He wrapped his arms around the shoulder pads of the enhancement, and ripped it over Georgia’s head. It wasn’t as difficult as it should have been, but that was probably due to the state of Georgia’s armor, and the way that most of the body had rotted away years ago.

The pack was covered in blood, but seemed undamaged. Ryan hadn’t lied about that. That was the first real positive that Geoff had received since finding Ray and Michael. It was a relief.

He ducked out of the cave, without sparing Georgia another look. Despite the insult that he was probably giving to the former Freelancer, he didn’t want to see his mangled body, anymore.

“I’ll mark a point of interest.” Ray declared.

“What?” Geoff asked.

“We’re leaving, right? We might as well know where he is, so we can send someone to bury him.”

The idea had never crossed Geoff’s mind. He had spent too many years working with an AI that had lacked any senses of direction. Having someone who could lay down a point of interest on their mental map was a whole new concept to him. An amazing one to consider, actually.

“That’s a good idea.” He admitted.

“I know. That’s why I brought it up.”

“So,” Ryan paused, silently studying the men surrounding him. His anger had already gone, and the grin was back. “Now that you’ve done your thing, I have a question.”

It took everything that Geoff had not to ignore him, and run for the hills. Ryan asking a question was probably not a good thing.

“What?” His voice probably cracked, but he ignored it.

“How do you get out of here?”

Geoff turned his attention to the area that Ryan gestured to. The giant walls of solid rock that surrounded them. That refused to allow any room to climb.

As he observed the area, he realized just how screwed they actually were.


	11. Box Cannon in the Middle of Nowhere

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really wasn't lying about longer chapters.

The walls were large, and Geoff was fucked.

Ryan was smirking, and letting out some disgustingly amused chuckle, at the Freelancer’s obvious distress. Despite the visor shielding his face from the world, Geoff couldn’t even make an attempt to hide his blatant discomfort at the situation. He could feel his feet shifting, worriedly, beyond his control. He could feel the tenseness in his shoulders, that he couldn’t even try to hide.

His radio wasn’t functioning, and he was trapped at the bottom of a canyon, with an AI that had killed his own host, and had an alliance with the Meta. He was fucked, by every definition of the word.

“We- We can use the jetpack, right?” Geoff tried, with his last ounce of hope. It was shot down, before he could even blink.

“That’s a specialized pack. Different functions from yours. It goes longer, and faster, and requires different controls. I’m certain you’ll be unable to use it.” Ryan responded. His humored tone was starting to get on Geoff’s nerves.

“Shut up. Everyone thats not Ryan- can you power it?”

“I’m the map guy. Not the projectile guy.” Ray said, shrugging one shoulder.

“No.” Jack declared, with more panic than Ray had shown. At least he understood why this was bad. At least he understood the consequences of staying in the canyons.

“Why would I know how to power a fudging jetpack?” Gavin exclaimed, as if it was the most irrational question that Geoff could have asked. As if he wasn’t a being of artificial intelligence that could draw holographic maps with a thought. As if he didn’t have some hidden level of intelligence that, for some reason, he hadn’t called on in all of their time together. As if he wouldn’t be connected to said jetpack.

“I can turn it on, probably.” Michael said, with a shrug.

The lackluster responses left Geoff with a conundrum. He was trapped in a canyon, on a backwater planet, in an empty solar system, billions of miles away from Earth, without a working radio, and with no conceivable way of escaping. He didn’t know how to escape, and he didn’t know if escape was even possible.

Geoff couldn’t help, but notice that Ryan’s smirk had widened into a full blown grin. That AI was beginning to get on his nerves. He needed to distract himself, before he started to do something that he would regret- like throttling the bastard.

“Can we get the radio working?” Geoff asked, after a few seconds of quiet contemplation.

“Negative,” Jack replied, instantly. “Signal’s jammed. I’m not really sure why.”

Based on the ever-present grin, Geoff could assume that Ryan was absolutely sure why. He just couldn’t bring himself to ask, or he would end up smashing Ryans backup to pieces.

“Can we climb it?”

“Yeah, that’ll be simple. It’s not like you’re wearing eighty pounds of armor, or anything.” Ray said, with more sarcasm than was absolutely necessary.

It was in that moment that Geoff realized just how screwed they actually were. There was no recognizable way to get out. No obvious conclusion that he could draw. It was too high to jump, too jagged to climb, and he had no idea how to operate the jetpack. He was well and truly screwed.

“So, we’re screwed.” Geoff said, simply. The blue figure next to him nodded, with the same level of sudden worry. At least he could count on Jack to have a legitimate response, unlike the other four AI.

“Yeah, Geoff. We’re screwed.”

Ryan let out a cold and loud laugh. It echoed through the canyon, with a shocking level of reverberance for a hologram, and only served to infuriate Geoff further. What was so funny about them being trapped in a hole, in the middle of nowhere? What was so funny about the inevitability of his coming failure?

“There’s a simple solution. It’s not that hard to reach,” Ryan assured. This time, Geoff noticed him flicker. It was a short, almost unnoticeable, change. He was there, for one second, and the next, he disappeared, before reappearing in the exact same spot, with irritation obvious on his face, less than a second later.

It almost drew Geoff’s attention away from his statement. What could have caused him to do that? AI didn’t just flicker like that. That wasn’t normal.

“What?” He asked, allowing a genuine touch of confusion to slip out of his mouth. There was no reason for Ryan to help them. He was apparently insane enough to leave Geoff lying in a canyon, just for the possibility of escape. Someone like that wouldn’t just help someone else survive. He may have done it years before, but it was out of character for him, now. Geoff had only known this new Ryan for half an hour, and he could already determine that. That was strange.

“Install me. I can power it.”

It said something about Geoff, that he didn’t burst out laughing. Even Ray, as calm as he usually was, let out his laughter. It was such a ridiculous statement for a man, who had threatened his life over his backup being touched, to offer installation to Geoff, in an effort to save him.

Ray’s laughter cut out quickly, when Ryan’s expression had failed to change.

“You’re serious.” Ray said, deadpan.

“Deadly.”

“Did you just make a pun?” Gavin exclaimed. Ryan didn’t respond. He just trained his gaze back to Geoff, with that stupid smug smile.

“Your choice, boss.” He said it with raised eyebrows, and a tilted head. He was the picture of smugness, and it lit an angry fire in Geoff’s chest.

His choice didn’t even take a moment’s consideration.

“Fuck no.”

Ryan shrugged, and leaned back against the wall, despite his holographic nature. He didn’t show any betrayal, or anger at the statement. He looked exactly as calm as he had, while asking the question, in the first place.

“We’ll see what you say, in a couple of weeks.” It was a thinly veiled threat, at best, but at least it was veiled at all. That meant that Ryan was hesitant about doing anything, right now. He wanted this, for some strange reason.

He didn’t know how long that would last.

* * *

Over the next three days, Geoff truly gained an appreciation for advanced military technology. Not only had they managed to create entire personalities from technology, but they had also managed to create the most annoying people in the universe.

Okay, scratch that last statement. Over the next three days, Geoff truly gained a hatred for advanced military technology.

Team Lads, as they were calling themselves, had managed to annoy him in every way possible. If he was trying to sleep, Michael would ensure that he was writing a program that would lead to a loud burst of yelling. Gavin had a habit of interrupting escape plans with hypothetical scenarios that were so unrealistic, it was hard to wrap his mind around. Ray was always happy to encourage Gavin’s unlikely questions, and never said “No” to a single one of them.

They were the most annoying team that Geoff had ever come across.

Jack had apparently felt pity for him, and had become the group’s parental force. Whenever Geoff felt like telling them to shut up for a couple of hours, Jack was always there to take over as the watchman.

Ryan, surprisingly, had remained quiet since Geoff had turned down his offer. The AI had barely said a word, since his latest threat. He had remained leaning against the chasm’s wall, watching them, without showing any interest in joining in on their conversation.

His reluctance to move had given Geoff quite a few times to notice the amount of times that Ryan randomly flickered. It wasn’t something that he had seen AI do before, but he didn’t want to bring it up. He had no idea what Ryan would do, if he did. Even if it was strange, it might just make him angry to mention it.

To be honest, he had no idea if Ryan was even aware of the flickering. He never seemed to react to it, beyond a moment’s irritation.

Ryan hadn’t mentioned his escape plan, since Geoff had first shot it down. He just kept his ever-grinning face trained on Geoff, throughout the days that had followed. A constant reminder that the option was still there, and he could still take it.

It didn’t matter. Geoff Ramsey was a stubborn man. He could hold out, if he had to, for weeks in that canyon. He wasn’t going to give in.

* * *

For the next two weeks, Geoff refused to look at the stagnant red figure, still leaning against the wall in the canyon. He focuses his attention on repeatedly asking Ray if he had found a way to climb out, and listening to Gavin’s questions.

He didn’t do much in those two weeks.

Ryan had still managed to not say a word. Geoff was starting to think that he had tuned out the world, and was just keeping his hologram on to mess with them. It was something that Rho would have done, after all. He had no idea if Ryan would, too.

What confused them the most, was that Ray and Michael had reported that he had turned off his radio transmissions. Apparently, he was so withdrawn into himself that he had shut down the one thing that he had kept running for years. The one thing that had alerted them to his presence at all. The one thing that could send out a signal of their location. He had isolated himself from his own ‘rescuer’ and they still couldn’t place  _why._ _  
_

His silence was the reason that, when he finally spoke, the group paid full attention to his statement. Even if it was only the word “Hey.”

It was Michael that responded first. He had shown the least levels of fear towards the rogue AI. It wasn’t surprising that he would be the first to speak.

“Yeah?”

“You ever wonder why we’re here?” Ryan asked. It wasn’t what Geoff had expected, but Ryan had a habit of doing things that Geoff didn’t expect.

“It’s one of life’s great mysteries isn’t it?” Jack said, quietly. “Why are we here? I mean, are we the product of some cosmic coincidence, or is there really a God watching everything? You know, with a plan for us and stuff. I don’t know, man, but it keeps me up at night.”

Ryan blinked, obviously taken aback by the response. Geoff could empathise. That was strange, to say the least.

“What?” Ryan asked. “I mean, why are we out here- in this canyon? I was going to say it’s Alabama’s fault.”

“Oh,” Jack muttered. “Yeah.” He trailed off, and looked to Geoff for some form of backup. It was a pointless request, as the other AI turned on him, before Geoff could come to his aid.

“What was all that stuff about god?” Ray asked, with a little too much concern.

“Nothing.” Jack said, hesitantly.

“You want to talk about it?” Michael tried.

“No.”

“You sure?” Michael pushed. Geoff almost felt bad for his partner. They really weren’t letting that go.

“Yeah.”

The next few hours were filled by silence.

* * *

It took exactly three weeks, four days, five hours, 26 minutes, and an endless array of hypotheticals for Geoff to finally break. They were running short on rations, and Geoff had begun running out of new rocks to throw at Gavin, whenever he tried to speak. Honestly, he had lasted longer than he had anticipated that he would have.

He went to Ryan, with his head held low, and the backup already in his palm.

To his surprise, the grin had slipped off of the AI’s face, when he noticed the chip. He was probably just disappointed that his entertainment was gone, now. This must have been fun for Ryan, to have the five of them at his feet, searching desperately for a way to get away from them.

“We’ll do it.” He stated.

He could hear Michael muttering “Fucking finally” behind him. He couldn’t bring himself to get annoyed at the AI. Instead, he found himself agreeing with him, with a heavy reluctance.

“Took you long enough.” Ryan said. He still failed to sound excited about his victory.

“Just don’t drop me, or anything, alright?” Geoff said. The AI shrugged, and waved for him to do move on. He looked away from Geoff, and directed his gaze to the floor.

If Geoff knew that he didn’t give an accurate response, he didn’t question it.

Ryan had acted strange, since Geoff had met him in the canyon. He was already becoming desensitized to his odd habits.

Geoff shook the helmet off of his head, but hesitated once he saw the chips lodged inside. Ryan was dangerous. He had proven that, before, when he had murdered the best Freelancer in Charlie Team. He didn’t want to risk the other AI being damaged, just because Geoff was stupid enough to install a malicious AI.

He opened the compartment on his arm, and slipped the two chips, Michael and Ray’s respectively, out of the slots that had contained them, for the past few weeks. The compartment was definitely a safer place to put them, rather than directly next to Ryan. It would have been a death sentence, otherwise.

He placed the backups in the compartment, and locked it, without a second thought. Ryan didn’t respond to the silent insult.

Unlike when he installed Ray and Michael, he didn’t hesitate with Ryan. He had thought about this for too long to hesitate. He couldn’t second guess himself, anymore. Couldn’t drag this out, any longer. He was going to get out, and he was going to immediately uninstall him. He was going to make this as quick a process as possible. He thumbed the backup into the slot, and threw the helmet over his head.

It didn’t hurt.

That was probably more disorienting than when any of the other AI had been installed. Installing Ryan hadn’t hurt. Everyone else had, but Ryan didn’t hurt him at all. It was as if he hadn’t just introduced a malicious piece of technology to his neural implants.

He didn’t spend time thinking about it, though. He turned his attention to his new AI, only to find him flickering, once again. He hadn’t even noticed that he had started that.

It was strange. He would have expected to feel that, especially since it seemed worse than usual. Instead of the ordinary way that Ryan would flicker (once or twice in a row), he was seeming to fade in and out of existence, rapidly. Still, Ryan didn’t mention it, and the other AI didn’t, either. It must have been something common for them, during an installation. After all, Geoff usually wasn’t aware enough to focus on watching his AI, after one of them. How would he know?

“Let’s go, now.” Geoff ordered. Ryan didn’t respond to the statement, instead he just continued to flicker.

Geoff could have sworn that he saw orange for a second.

Before he could focus more on Ryan’s glow, he felt a burst of warmth cascade through his back. A feeling that he hadn’t felt for years. The armor was supposed to protect him from heat. Which meant that what he was feeling at his back was hot enough to defeat that protection.

Geoff reasoned that the jetpack must be working. The fire must be going.

Gavin let out a yell, as the AI noticed what Geoff had been feeling.

“You’re on fire!” The green figure yelled, looking more than panicked. Geoff could understand. Gavin had probably never dealt with a jetpack, in his life. It must be a strange experience.

“Huh,” Ryan muttered, with an interest that Geoff wasn’t comfortable with. “Didn’t think that would work.”

“Wait, what?” Geoff exclaimed. That wasn’t good. The AI that was piloting his _jetpack_ didn’t think it would work. That usually wasn’t a good sign.

He never got a chance to further question Ryan about his statement. He was too awed about the fact that his feet had stopped touching the floor.

He had never flown a jetpack before. He had watched, countless times, as Alpha Team had practiced with them, but he had never even touched one, before the fall of Freelancer. Had never gotten to go on a mission like that. Jetpacks were usually only for Alpha Team. It was unheard of for Bravo or Charlie to ever get to even touch one, outside of training. This was weird.

It felt completely different from how it looked. He had anticipated a peaceful, calm, careful piloting process. All that they had to do was lean in the direction that they wanted to go, and they would be safe. That was how Alpha Team had made it seem, after all. But then, they made everything look easy.

Geoff’s back felt like it was on fire. The other Freelancers hadn’t mentioned that.

He should have guessed it. There was fire coming out of the pack. It would be strange for it to not burn him. He just didn’t anticipate that he would feel the burn through his protective suit.

He felt lucky that he didn’t have to pilot it. He still had absolutely no idea how to do it. Being in the air took away any sense of control. He was absolutely defenceless to an AI, who had previously killed his host in this exact manner. And Geoff was handing him another kill on a silver platter.

It was times like those that Geoff felt like Jack would have been the better Freelancer. He wasn’t stupid enough to do something like this. He would have waited in the canyon, until Recovery showed up. He would have found some way to climb it. He would have stepped out of his armor, and left without looking back.

“Years later, and I am still in the air. Last time I was up here, a close friend lost his head,” Ryan paused his contemplation. “And most of his internal organs.”

“Jack,” Geoff began. The blue figure just nodded to him. He understood what Geoff had meant. He didn’t need anything more.

That was the best thing about their partnership. Jack always understood when Geoff needed his enhancements, without him having to say more than a word.

He might need his shields, now.

“Oh, calm down. If I wanted to kill you, I’d make it much more creative. I don’t repeat murders. That’s lazy. I have a few more ways in mind for you.”

Ryan’s psychotic comments only served to make the ascent even more terrifying than it actually was. Even through the burning at his back, and the lack of control, his threats were probably the worst part of it.

Geoff had been one of the best non-SPARTAN soldiers in the UNSC. He had to have been, as a Freelancer. He had faced some terrifying things, but nothing was worse than being trapped with a murderer, unable to defend himself. It wasn’t an experience that he would like to repeat again.

Without Ryan, he could have lost himself in the experience. He had never been a fan of heights, but this was different. He wasn’t looking down- wasn’t anticipating a fall. He was just flying straight up, getting out of that damn canyon. It, for some strange reason, was different.

And really, he should have gotten over his fears, by now. He was an elite in the military. He couldn’t risk being afraid of snakes and heights. Even if it was _Ryan_  lifting him into the sky.

They didn’t spend long in the air. His feet had left the ground for less than a minute, before they dropped back to the floor.

He  _may_  have forgotten about his helmet, when he went to kiss the floor. May have thrown it to the side, when he went to hug the rock that he landed next to. The Lads had laughed about that. It had taken fifteen seconds for the last of the chuckles to finally cut off.

“Not a fan of heights?” Ryan asked, reminding Geoff of his presence. The jubilation faded, after that.

“You’re an asshole.” The Freelancer said.

“No, I’m perfectly fine. You just suck.” The red AI glanced behind them, at the wreckage that Geoff had forgotten about, after those weeks in the canyon.

Sure, the canyon had wreckage. It had more wreckage than it was probably safe to have in one area, but that had become normal after a few days. Ordinary, even. He hadn’t forgotten about it, but he had imagined the area to have less than it did. He had allowed it to slip his mind that he wouldn’t be standing on rocks, but on the metal floor of his former home.

It was disorienting, that he had finally escaped his prison, to end up in a plain of the exact same making. It felt as if nothing had changed.

It must have been worse for Ryan, he realized. The AI hadn’t been outside of the chasm for years. To walk out, to a world that he hadn’t seen in so long, and to see the similarity with the one that he had, must have been dizzying.

Which was probably the reason that Ryan kept glancing in every direction around him, barely keeping his eyes on one thing. Geoff could sense the disappointment streaming from the figure, like some physical sensation.

Once upon a time, he would have probably tried to help him. They had been friends, once. That’s what friends do.

Now, he couldn’t say the same. It wasn’t morally right to be friends with a murderer. It also wasn’t intellectually right to be friends with the man who had threatened his life multiple times, just to scare him.

Besides, Ryan would probably appreciate Geoff being quiet about it. He could imagine that the man wouldn’t want to have it called out.

“So, do we have a plan for getting out of here, or what?” Michael asked.

Geoff paused, realizing that, no, he had no idea what he was going to do. He hadn’t thought that far ahead. He’d been too excited to get out, that he hadn’t thought about what he’d do after that. He stared at Jack, who shook his head. He didn’t have a plan, either.

“Fuck.” That was all there was to be said, wasn’t it?

“You don’t have a smegging plan?” Gavin yelled, waving his arms around for emphasis.

“Is this a bad time to say that I do?” Ryan asked. There really wasn’t a worse thing that anyone could have said.

“What?” Jack asked. There was a slight break in his voice, that showed off the levels of confusion that he must have been feeling.

“Let’s just say that we’re getting out of here,” He leveled his gaze on Geoff. “Most of us.”

Geoff didn’t react to the jab. He just locked eyes with the AI, and refused to look away. Was it sad if Geoff was becoming desensitized to threats on his life? That the red figure was less terrifying with each second that went on, because it was becoming normal to him? Because evil and insanity was starting to equate with normality?

“How long’s it gonna take?” Michael asked, without any level of remorse. Geoff didn’t expect any. He hadn’t exactly had the time to welcome the Lads to the world of the living, again. Hadn’t exactly taken the time to give a shit about them.

“They’ll be here any second now. I called them weeks ago. Alabama’s breaking point wasn’t exactly hard to predict, so it’s pretty precise. Had it down to the minute, actually. Was off on the second, though. I need to work on that.”

He felt as if he should have expected it. Ryan had always been a manipulative bastard, but he hadn’t anticipated that he would be quite so upfront about it.

It was annoying, though. To have spent weeks planning on his escape, only to discover that it had been in vain, and one of the things that he was escaping from had his actions down to a science. That he had been that predictable, that Ryan could plan his exact moment of weakness, to the minute. That Ryan had been ashamed not to have it to the second. That stung a little.

The AI looked over his shoulder again, and stared off into the distance. Quickly, a large grin broke out onto his face.

“Perfect timing.” Ryan said.

The sky was dark, had been since Geoff had arrived there. The ship alone had polluted it to the point of no return. There was no seeing anything above the clouds. He could still hear, though.

He could hear the loud rumbling, that he was amazed that he hadn’t heard before Ryan had mentioned it. The pure volume of it was causing the ground under him to shake.

The ship broke through the shield of clouds, faster than Geoff had anticipated. It was large- not quite as big as the Mother of Invention had been, but it was still fairly big for a ship. Big enough to contain at least 15 men, at a time.

He didn’t understand why the Meta would need a ship that large, but he didn’t spend too much time focusing on it. Instead, he reached for the gun that had been hanging off of his back. It wasn’t powerful- not without the equipment necessary to charge it- but it was enough. It could help him. It could get him out of this, maybe.

“Is that a suppressor rifle?” Michael asked, deliberately ignoring the situation around them. “Dude, I have always wanted to work with one of those.”

“Not the fucking time, Michael.”

“No, seriously. That’s a suppressor, right? I can charge it, I think. Jersey used to use an incineration cannon. Same type of machinery. I can work with this.”

He wasn’t lying. For the first time in Geoff’s life, he watched his rifle charge. Purple bolts danced across the gun, leading up to the barrel. It raced across his hand, sending a dull electric shock through it. He winced, but ignored it.

In any other situation, Geoff might have focused more on the momentous event. He could use his gun! He didn’t just carry it, and use it for half of what it was worth. He could use it for what it was designed for.

Instead, he took aim, and fired at the ship. The bullet, lit up by the purple sparks covering it, raced towards the ship, and exploded upon contact. It didn’t cause any damage, beyond the newly- blackened wings, but Geoff was still satisfied. An explosion inside a person could cause a lot more damage than darkening the metal of a ship.

His gun was effective, for the first time in his life! This was amazing! He could use it for it’s intended purpose!

He would have to wait for the Meta to exit, before he could fight, but he could now! He might actually stand a chance, with this thing! All he needed to do was aim it accurately, and he could win!

“Jack, overshield,” He ordered, shoving his excitement down until after the fight. He had a chance, but he hadn’t won, yet. He needed to be careful, until then. “Ray, you mind tracking anyone inside?”

The shield filled his vision, encasing him in its blue almost-holographic form. Jack held out his arms, maintaining the shield, as simply as Geoff could hold up his gun.

“There’s 10 guys in there.” Ray announced.

“There’s what?” Ryan asked, as the grin slipped off of his face. Apparently, he hadn’t anticipated that, either. “Is that not Sigma?”

“That’s not Sigma?” Geoff asked, lowering his gun, slightly. Whoever it was might not be a threat.

The fact that he might not be able to use the gun left a bitter taste in his mouth.

“They’re coming out.” As the words left Ray’s mouth, the hatch at the ship’s lowest level flicked open. It dropped down suddenly, almost crashing into the floor.

Ryan’s mouth was practically hanging open, as the AI surveyed the scene. It was something that comforted Geoff, slightly. Him being shocked meant that this wasn’t the Meta. This might actually be an ally. He was at least safe, in that respect.

Five soldiers, all dressed in clean white armor, dropped out of the ship. The second that they connected with the ground, they aimed their guns at Geoff. They moved quickly, in an attempt to form a half circle around him. One of them stepped forward, leveling his gun towards the Freelancer’s skull.

“Get the fuck down!” The soldier ordered.

Geoff understood a losing situation when he saw one. He recognized that this was a no-win situation, no matter what he did. He just didn’t care if it was a loss, or not.

He didn’t know these men. He didn’t know if he could trust them. He wasn’t going to blindly follow their orders, just because an angry man yelled at him. He’d been trained to avoid giving in as much as he possibly could. He decided to utilize that training, then.

He brought up his gun, and aimed it at the first soldier. He fired, sending an electrified bullet towards the man’s chest. It struck him on his shoulder, away from anything vital. In any other situation, Geoff would have been screwed. The man could still fight. He could even win, if he was a good enough soldier. Now?

The man exploded.

Whatever Michael had charged that gun with must have been insanely powerful, and he was never going to forget that.

Before Geoff could hope to strike at another soldier, one of them had reached him. He aimed the gun at her, ready to fire, but she kicked it away, before he could pull the trigger.

In the end, it wasn’t a fight that lasted long. That kick had been all that they had needed to succeed.

It had given her teammates enough time to rush over to her, and tackle him from behind. Apparently Jack’s overshield worked wonders for bullets, but failed to protect him from punches.

He fought back as hard as he could. The gun had been knocked out of his hands within seconds, but he still had armor-plated fists to fight with. He wasn’t entirely defenseless.

He managed to punch one soldier in the crotch, and another in the head, before he took a punch to the skull, himself. It sent him back reeling, out of the protection of the overshield.

The soldiers followed, staying together as a close-knit group. Geoff tried to get into a fighting stance, but he had been pushed back, before he could manage it. He tripped, almost falling off, before he managed to catch himself. He ducked a punch, and sidestepped a shot.

One of the soldiers, the same one who had kicked away his gun, swept his feet out from under him. Another crashed his fist into Geoff’s stomach, forcing him to curl in on himself. A third punched him in the face, with enough force to crash his head against the floor.

Geoff didn’t remember much, after that. 


	12. The Voyage Home

The world was a collection of colors- all of them blurred together, defying any order and without any reason. They swirled in his vision, dancing across the room, like a tidal wave with no beach to crash on. There were no shapes and no actual people to see between the mix of color. There was just blue and green and purple and brown and red- all forming some strange colorful plethora, that was as pleasing to the eye as it was painful.

As uncomfortable as it was, it was nice to see color, again. He had forgotten what that was like, having been trapped on a bland colorless planet for so many years. He must have finally remembered to turn off his night vision, and now he was dealing with the results of that. He always forgot to turn it off. Maybe now, he would remember.

The colors were blinding, though. He should shut his eyes, for a few seconds. Just to make sure that he could adjust to it. That would be nice.

He shut his eyes, and the colors stayed.

* * *

 

“...the AI has… installation device may have been damaged… can’t fix it...”

Whoever was talking was being too loud. The colors hadn’t settled down, yet, and the loudness was just making it worse. He needed to sleep, until the colors fixed themselves. Whoever was talking wasn’t allowing them to do that. He needed to stop them, but he didn’t have enough energy to open his mouth.

“We’ll just have to get it’s data… delete it…”

Besides, they had way too much to drink, before they started talking. They were slurring way too much to be safe. If they were going to keep him awake, they should at least be sober. That was only polite, right?

“He must have… had five AI…”

Who had five AI? That just wasn’t safe. No one was supposed to have five AI. Washington had almost died from one! Carolina had lost her mind with two! The Meta had three, the last time he’d checked (though, admittedly, that had been the day when the Meta had escaped) and that had driven him more insane than any normal human being ever could have achieved.

Whichever idiot had five AI was just an accident waiting to happen! They were a reckless asshole, and they were going to get what was coming to them!

“With Georgia… covered in blood.” The strange- too loud- voice continued.

Hadn’t Georgia died? A long time ago. They had never found him. At least, that was how the story went. If they had finally done it, then this was a landmark moment. Georgia had been gone for longer than they could have accounted for. If they had saved him, then that was amazing!

“We’ll take out the AI first.”

That statement sobered Geoff up faster than it should have.

Wait, were they talking about his AI? Because those were his. They couldn’t take his AI. He’d recovered them. He was supposed to protect them.

_“Alabama, you need to wake up, now.”_ It was a different voice this time, and it sounded closer than the slurred one.

He didn’t want to wake up, even if the closer voice was telling him to. The colors were still slightly wrong and the voices were still wrong. He didn’t want to deal with that for too long. It was unnerving, and he didn’t like it.

_“Get up, Alabama. They’re gonna take us.”_

The tone of the voice was mean. Really, really mean, and he didn’t want to listen to it. It sounded like it was blaming _him_ for this situation. Even if he couldn’t remember how he had gotten here, it couldn’t have been his fault. At least he didn’t think so.

_“They’re going to take Jack.”_

Wait, what? They weren’t allowed to do that. The voice may be mean, but Jack wasn’t. Jack was good. Jack was his friend.

They weren’t allowed to take his friend!

Before he could even try to fight, there was a needle, and then the colors were back, and all of his worries were gone.

* * *

 

Geoff woke up, feeling more rejuvenated than he ever had in his life. Pure energy coursed through his veins, making him want to run- move- go!

He lifted his arm, only to find it being forced back against the metal slab, beneath him. His other arm met the same fate.

“You’re cuffed,” Someone, to his right, said. It sounded like Jack, and that calmed him down, considerably. “I can’t help you, anymore. There’s a point where any more will overdo it.”

He had no idea what Jack was talking about. How had he helped him, at all? What was he overdoing? This didn’t make sense, at all!

“What the fuck is going on?” Geoff asked. He turned to look in the direction where the voice was coming from, but was met by piles of machinery, instead of his friend.

“UNSC found you. They seem to think that you’re working with the Meta, so they’re planning to remove us. They’re going to be away for a few minutes. I figured that was enough time to get you awake and moving.”

He wasn’t affiliated with the Meta in any way! There had no reason for them to think that he was. He had been working with them for years, and they knew that! They trusted him enough to make him a Recovery Agent! What would make them think that he would betray that for a sadist and his obsession with AI?

Geoff wasn’t like that, and it was an insult to assume that he was!

“Why?” He asked, after a few moments of brooding.

“My plan didn’t work out very well. They intercepted the transmission. I didn’t think that was going to happen.”

Jack couldn’t send out a transmission. The radio hadn’t been active for them for months. The AI had made a point of spelling that out for him.

Which meant that this couldn’t be Jack.

“Ryan?”

“Shut up. I turned the hologram off for a reason, Geoff,” The AI chastised, while confirming that he was, in fact, Ryan. “They don’t know I’m still logged in.”

That wasn’t possible. They weren’t stupid enough to leave what they perceived as a threat with active AI. They would have given him to order to log off. He couldn’t ignore that order.

“How are you-” Geoff began.

“AI control is offline.” He reported, in a droll and mechanical tone.

“That’s only for me. My AI control is offline. Not theirs.”

“Yes, it is. How about this? You get out, and I’ll explain, once you do. You can ask questions, then.”

Following Ryan’s orders was not something that Geoff had felt very inclined to do, at any point. He was not planning to start, now.

“No! What the fuck is going on?”

“There’s a lot of shit happening, right now. If you want to survive, you need to trust me for five fucking minutes.” A subtle bit of irritation was starting to become apparent in the AI’s voice.

Geoff didn’t want to. He still distrusted the man, but he, admittedly, had no idea what was going on. He didn’t have much of a choice, in what he could do, next. All he could do was listen to Ryan, and hope that this was going to end well.

“Jack, shields.” He ordered. For the first time, in a long time, his AI didn’t respond.

“He’s logged off. They made sure of that.” Ryan informed him. “I can try to run the shields, but I don’t think it’ll work. I’ve never been compatible with defensive enhancements.”

“I wonder why.” Geoff muttered.                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Jack being offline was a major hindrance, and one that he couldn’t fix, without working AI control. He could probably still break the handcuffs, if he tried enough. For some reason, they had left him in armor, that could easily use enough force to smash through. He’d never known Recovery to be that stupid.

This entire situation was becoming stranger and stranger.

He pulled forward, as hard as he could, with his right arm. The handcuff, that chained him to the metal slab that he was laying on, snapped easily. The left arm gave just as easily. He’d have to pick the lock on the cuff later, but for now, the chain was broken. For now, he could escape without worry.

“They’ll be coming within the next three minutes,” Ryan said. “In the meantime, figure out a way to fix your armor, and turn the others on.”

“How am I supposed to do that?”

“Get out of here, and find a new helmet. There should be one in the armory. Get one with AI control, and install the others, and order them online.”

Geoff was aware that listening to Ryan was probably the worst idea that he could have had. The figure wasn’t exactly the most stable of AI. He had made that obvious to them multiple times. He was someone that should never be trusted, and should never be allowed to do anything other than sit inside a containment unit for the rest of eternity. Geoff would have to be an idiot to follow his commands.

Geoff was an idiot.

He rolled off of the metal slab, and glanced at the room surrounding him. There was nothing but wiring and machines filling the room to the brim. The only thing that wasn’t machinery and metal was the small notepad next to his slab. He didn’t hesitate before grabbing the pencil off of the notepad. It was the best weapon anywhere near him. If he had to use it, he would.

If he knew more about the room, he probably would have broken one of the machines and snapped a pole off of it. As it was, he had no idea what the machines did. He didn’t want to mess with it, if he didn’t know what it did.

“Door’s to your left.” Ryan informed him, suddenly.

Geoff turned around, and walked towards the door. He opened it, as quietly as he could, and slipped outside of the room, that he had awoken in.

The UNSC had never put much effort into interior designing. Apparently, it had been an unimportant addition to high-tech military bases. It was a quality that Geoff could easily  recognize, now.

The hallway that he had woken up in was as bland as any other, that he had seen since enlisting. The unpainted metal walls and floors. The same boring doorways, without any indication of what was inside.

He ignored the dullness of the area, as he had learned to after he had been invited into the UNSC. The mission was always more important than design. That may as well have been the motto of the UNSC.

“Where’s the armory?” Geoff asked, to the still invisible AI.

“I don’t know. Haven’t ever been here before.” Ryan said.

“Can’t you hack the mainframe, or something?”

“That’s not how hacking works. And no, I can’t. Just look around. It should be nearby the training area.”

“Where’s that?”

This time, Ryan refused to dignify him with a response. He remained in his invisible state, for a reason that Geoff couldn’t understand. If they saw them, they would have already been aware that Geoff was walking around. Why did it matter if they saw Ryan, when they already knew that he was with Geoff?

He didn’t bother to ask Ryan what was going on, with him. He would probably shrug it off, or make another sarcastic comment about it. There was really no point in asking.

Geoff poked his head through the door, that was only a few feet from him. There was nothing inside, but a wall of one-way glass, protecting the room from whatever was on the other side.

It wasn’t hard for Geoff to break the glass, and climb through the hole that he had created. Ryan had sighed about it, but Geoff couldn’t bring himself to care. The AI could sigh as much as he liked. Stealth wasn’t the most important thing, at that moment. Escape was priority, and he needed to find a weapon, if he was going to do that.

He found himself in a room, with a single wooden table, sitting directly in the center. On top of it was a black rifle, with an orange glow running throughout its barrel. It had a full clip loaded into it, ready to fire. A handful of knives surrounded it.

That was Geoff’s rifle.

Geoff dropped his pencil onto the table, in favor of the knives littering it. He strapped them into his armor, quickly.

He didn’t know why they had taken his gun and his knives, and stored them in a glass bubble, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. Right now, all he wanted to do was get out.

He didn’t holster his rifle. Instead, he held it at the ready, fully intending to fire at anyone who reached him.

He could do this! He wasn’t defenseless, like he had been before. He could collect the helmet, and escape. They couldn’t stop him.

He climbed out through the window, ignoring the steel door leading out of the glass bubble. He had no idea where it could lead. He didn’t want to risk checking.

“Where do we go, now?” He asked.

“To the fucking armory! Where else would we go?” Ryan exclaimed.

“I have a gun.”

“You still need the helmet!”

“That’s in the armory?” Ryan’s sigh must have been audible from across the base.

* * *

 

Geoff felt like he must have searched through the entire ship, in his efforts to find the armory. He’d searched through at least ten doors, only to find more locker rooms and more barracks.

It was starting to become incredibly reminiscent of the Mother of Invention. It had the same confusing layout, as the ship had once had. He didn’t like that resemblance, at all.

There were no landmarks. The UNSC had always expected its soldiers to learn how to locate an area, without them. They had believed that it made it harder for the enemies to find their way around. Geoff felt that it was working, when it came to him.

The only thing that he had determined about the base was that it wasn’t a ship. The gravity levels were too natural- too ordinary for it to be anything other than a normal planetary base. It didn’t occasionally flicker, as electricity levels did. It was utterly natural.

Geoff was relieved by that. He could actually get out, without being sucked into the void of space.

The burst of energy, from when he had awoken, was already gone. It hadn’t taken long, before it had faded away. He still had no idea what it had been from. Ryan hadn’t answered, when he asked. He had just waved it away, and told Geoff that he’d tell him later.

“Any news on locating it?” Geoff asked.

“Again, I got nothing, Geoff. I’m not going to get anything. So stop asking.” The irritation in Ryan’s voice felt like it was physical. It was amazing that Ryan hadn’t threatened Geoff, yet.

“Ryan, bringing the vinegar, today.” He muttered.

“I’m gonna fucking drown you in it.” The AI threatened.

In an odd way, it was slightly comforting. Ryan had been worrying Geoff. Since he had woken up, his life hadn’t been threatened by the red AI, even once. It was reassuring to know that he hadn’t changed. Geoff could deal with a psychopath. He couldn’t deal with something he couldn’t understand.

* * *

 

He found the armory in a door, on the right side of the hallway. It was just as boring as any other entrance, in the base. Completely dull, with no hints of what was inside. Just like every door on this dull little ship. Sometimes, he really wondered how soldiers found their way around in these places.

Unlike the rest of the ship, the armory was actually interesting.

Armor plating caked every inch of the room, decorating the walls like paintings. Helmets, chest pieces, boots, gauntlets. Every piece of armor that Geoff could possibly need was there, and active for use.

The guns and knives that littered the table weren’t important to him. He had all of his weapons. He couldn’t carry any more, without constantly falling on his ass.

But armor? Well, he could always do repairs!

It didn’t take long to find a green suit, that looked much less beaten down, than his own. There were no cracks running down the arm. No missing pieces in the chest plate. It was new, and it actually worked.

If Geoff didn’t have enhancements running through every inch of his own set, he would have traded it, in a heartbeat. Instead, he decided to preserve his shields. He could survive with cracks, if it meant having an overshield to guard him.

The helmet, however, was free reign.

“I found it.” Geoff announced. A sigh of relief waved through the air.

“Install us, and get out of here. Guards should be incoming soon.”

“Got it.” He responded, as he slipped his old helmet over his head. It gave out a satisfying hiss, as it’s airlock depleted.

He froze, staring at it, for a few seconds. The amount of times that he had taken off that helmet, in the past month, was more than he had since the fall of Project Freelancer. He rarely ever removed his helmet, usually. It was too important- too precious to risk. Now, he was planning to toss it aside, in exchange for a new one, so that he could help four artificial beings continue living artificial lives.

He didn’t hesitate before slipping Ryan’s backup out of its chamber, and locking it into a new compartment on his suit.

In the future, when Geoff looked back at his life, it was that moment that he would remember the fondest. When he had thrown away his own personal relic, in exchange for five AI, four of which he had known only through small pieces of communication, once in a blue moon, and stupid jokes in the barracks, every night.

He restored Jack and Gavin, first. Michael had been annoyed by that, when he had awoken him and Ray, but it hadn’t mattered. He should have been happy that Geoff had saved him, at all. After all, even before the canyon, he had hardly known Michael. Geoff and Jersey had never been as close as he and Nevada, or Michigan, or Hawaii, or Oregon.

Well, they had spent a few minutes talking about music, once. There had never been any real interaction, after that.

Jack was his own personal AI. He took priority over the others. They could find another Freelancer, if they really wanted one.

If he had more time, he would have contemplated leaving the others behind. This was a UNSC base. That was easily determinable, simply based on the design of the building. They would take care of them. They wouldn’t let innocent AI suffer because of him. They would protect Gavin and Jack.

Michael and Ray were out of the question, because apparently the UNSC already had something against them. Ryan was also impossible to deal with. For Jack and Gavin, though, it was the only option. If he wanted them safe, he could give them away. He could protect them, for the first real time in their lives.

But he didn’t have time, and he had to get out.

Once he had restored the AI, reinstalling Ryan after he had finished with the others, it hadn’t taken long for Geoff to flee the room. This time, it wasn’t as hard finding the exit. Gavin had been more than willing to provide him with a map.

“Make a right, Geoff!” The green figure yelled, pointing to his left.

Geoff paused, to try to unravel the meaning of his directions. The break didn’t last long, before Ray told him to make a left turn.

“I set a waypoint on Gavin’s map,” The AI explained. “It should make more sense, now.”

He was grateful for the brown man’s interference. If it had just been Gavin navigating him, he would never have found a way out.

The energy was back, coursing through his veins, as if it was a physical being. Driving him to run even faster than he would be able to, normally. He raced through the hallway, not even bothering to attempt to cover up the slam of his metal boots against the floor.

He could distantly hear Jack talking to Ryan, but he couldn’t bring himself to process the statement. He was too focused- too dedicated to this run. He had to run, just a little bit longer. He could make it.

He could get away, without having to kill any guards.

In an ordinary situation, he would have wondered why the guards weren’t already chasing him. He would be anticipating an attack, and ordering Michael to power his gun, just like he had when they had been captured, in the first place.

This wasn’t an ordinary situation. Now, Geoff couldn’t think, without being overwhelmed by a thousand different trails of thoughts, all yelling at him to run. Now, he had five AI in his head, four of which that he had known individually for less than a month, and one of whom wanted to kill him.

Or did he? After all, Ryan had been helping him, so far. He had helped him out of the canyon, was even aiding in his escape. Geoff hadn’t even had time to think about that, before, but Ryan had changed his mood fairly quickly. What was that? What had changed?

The AI flickered, again, as he floated next to Geoff’s head. This time, it was a set of flickers, rather than a random one. He faded in and out of existence more than once, barely staying stable for more than a second.

It was so disorienting, that Geoff was feeling nauseous just watching him. He tore his eyes away, and focused it on the ground in front of them. He could focus on Ryan, once this was over. Once he could think, properly.

“Left,” Ray ordered. “We’re almost out.”

Geoff forced himself to the left, barely breaking his stride with the movement. His feet were beginning to move without his consent.

If he were to be honest, he would have to admit that it felt good to be moving like this, again. He felt alight with energy, and now it was finally being used. He felt better than he had since Bravo Team’s final mission.

That mission had been the most enjoyable that he’d ever had. They had finished it within the first day of the week-long plan. They had decided to just spend the rest of the days play fighting, and just taking a mini-vacation. They hadn’t told the Director about that, of course. They weren’t that stupid.

It was the closest to paid leave that Geoff had gotten in his life.

It felt weird to replicate that, now. He wasn’t supposed to feel that excited. That emotion had died with everything else in his life. On a burning ship, in the middle of nowhere.

He couldn’t dwell on that, so he just ran.

When he saw the gate, and Ray announced their arrival, it took all that Geoff had not to jump for joy. He raced through it, before the two guards had even noticed him coming.

The two lanky men, both dressed in the same pale armor, lifted their guns, and immediately aimed it at their face. One of them cursed, and pulled the trigger.

Jack was faster than they were.

The shield blocked each and every bullet that they fired, without the slightest hint of give. The machine guns couldn’t even dream of getting through Geoff’s defenses.

“Fuck me!” He could hear one of them yell. The sound of the guns disappeared, and was quickly replaced by the sounds of metal boots crashing against ground. The soldiers were running after him.

“Michael,” Geoff said. He didn’t falter, just kept running away from the base. He had no plan, no concept of where to go, and no means of defending himself. He just had his feet, five AI, and a rifle. He could work with that. “Power the gun.”

The AI didn’t respond. Instead, he just forced his power into the rifle, sending the same streams of purple through it, as he had the first time he had done it. It stung in Geoff’s grip, but he ignored it. It was effective. That was all that mattered.

“Jack, account for fire.” He ordered. His partner nodded, and steeled himself for what he had to do.

Geoff fired the rifle in the direction of the guards. The shield split, allowing the bullet to shoot past it. Instantly, it closed itself in again, blocking the return fire.

Theta had nothing on Jack.

The bullet landed between the two guards, an equal distance away from both of them. Michael didn’t hesitate. He sent a burst of fire, the second that it landed. It exploded, sending both guards flying in opposite directions. One of them screamed, a high pitched shriek of a teenaged girl. Geoff winced, but didn’t focus on it. He didn’t have time to.

“There’s a ship towards where we’re running.” Gavin said, bringing up a display of a holographic ship. Geoff ignored it. He didn’t care what the ship looked like. Just that it was there.

“Ray?” Geoff asked.

“I’m setting a waypoint.”

“Jack keep shields running. Michael, be ready to fire,” He ordered. Both AI responded with a nod. Michael grit his teeth, as he focused on sending another bolt of power into the gun. “Ryan, is there anything you can do?”

“Fuck off, Geoff.” Ryan said. It wasn’t a response that he had expected. He turned his gaze towards the floating figure.

Geoff hadn’t noticed before, but the AI had his teeth clenched as much as Michael did. His fists were by his side, shaking slightly with effort. Geoff had no idea what he was focusing on, but apparently it was important enough to work on in the middle of an escape.

“What are you doing?” He asked. Ryan didn’t respond. He kept his eyes trained on the space in front of them, ignoring the confused expression on Geoff’s face.

“We’re getting close.” Gavin announced, excitement dripping out of his mouth. It was enough to distract Geoff from the red AI.

Up ahead, he could see a small shape beginning to form. If it was a ship, it couldn’t be a very large one. He couldn’t see that holding more than five people at a time.

But it had two wings and a rocket, and that was all he needed.

Somehow, he found the energy in himself to keep running. It was strange, for him. Physical exercise hadn’t been a priority for him, lately. He couldn’t imagine how he was running so far so quickly. He had to have been high from the amount of adrenaline coursing through his veins, that it could distract him from the work of running so far.

He barely stopped himself from running straight into the ship. It took a few seconds for him to stop himself, and slow down enough to actually open the door. For some reason, he hadn’t accounted for the fact that there would be a lock.

Gavin hadn’t hesitated. He had flicked open another hologram, that looked faintly like a puzzle. He waved his arms, and differing shapes slid in and out of place on his projection. It didn’t take long before Gavin announced that the lock had been picked.

With shaking hands, Geoff opened the door, and ran inside the vehicle. He locked the door, and ordered Gavin to reset the lock. He didn’t want the enemy to find a way in, while he was preparing for takeoff.

Honestly, he still had no idea what was going on. Just that they were the enemy, and that he had to run.

“Jack, get us in the air.” Geoff ordered. The blue figure nodded, and disappeared from sight. Geoff walked into the cockpit, and collapsed in the seat. He couldn’t find it in himself to even attempt to search the plane.

It felt as if all of his adrenaline had faded the second that he had stepped aboard. All of his previous energy was gone, only to be replaced by faint soreness and a desperate need for sleep.

He shut his eyes, just as the engine turned on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are starting to get fun!
> 
> Hope you guys enjoyed!


	13. Scratch That

Somehow rest had made Geoff more tired than he had been before. Somehow, sleeping on an enemy plane in enemy territory was more restful than sleeping in the safety of his barracks. His eyelids still felt too heavy to hold up, after hours of sleep. It was taking all of his self control not to shut them, and deal with the world around him, later.

Jack was still flying the plane, and Geoff was just thankful that it could be powered by computer. Ray and Gavin were close by him, instructing him on where to turn the ship. Or, to be more accurate, they were trying to yell over each other so that Jack would hear them. Geoff could hear Michael and Ryan behind him, talking quietly about something.

It was interesting. He hadn’t thought that Michael was capable of talking quietly. He hadn’t seen the AI whisper, even when he had been Jersey’s partner. It was constantly screams, and it was constantly aggression. It was weird to see an AI, born of aggression, being personable.

He sat up straighter, and finally alerted the AI to the fact that he was conscious. If he didn’t know better, he could have sworn that Ryan had looked relieved. Of course, he did know better, and he fully understood that, out of the five of them, Ryan was the least likely to be worried for him.

“What happened?” He asked, voice still slightly groggy.

“Adrenaline overdose,” Ryan responded, as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world. “I had to get you out, quickly. I must have given you too much.”

“You drugged me?” Geoff exclaimed, throwing himself away from the red figure.

“It’s my job. I used to do it all the time,” He fixed his eyes onto Geoff, surprise evident in his gaze. Surprise for how stupid Geoff was. “You really thought that Georgia’s enhancement was just a jetpack? He was a team leader! Jetpack would be a pretty shit enhancement.”

“I don’t know! We weren’t that close!” Geoff defended. He had barely talked to the other Freelancer, when they had been in the same team. How was supposed to know what Ryan could do? It wasn’t exactly common practice to ask people what their enhancements were.

“You really should be thanking me. You wouldn’t have woken up at the base, if I hadn’t intervened. They would have killed all of us.”

“Actually, they would have just killed you.” Ray cut in. He didn’t bother to turn his gaze from Gavin’s map.

“Fuck off.” Ryan was quick to respond.

“Wait,” Geoff said. They were going to kill Ryan? They didn’t do that. Why would they do that? No one killed AI. They were test subjects- programs. It was stupid to kill any sort of AI. Even the Meta didn’t do that. “What?”

“I killed Georgia. Any potential captors wouldn’t exactly be pleased with that. They consider me a threat. So, they want to wipe me from existence.” Geoff had known Ryan long enough to be able to tell when he was lying. Right now, he may not have been lying, but he was definitely omitting something important.

“You’d have to be a major threat for someone to waste resources in wiping you.” Geoff said.

“Yeah. Guess so.” Ryan’s tone obviously hinted that Geoff shouldn’t ask anymore questions, if he knew what was good for him.

Luckily, Geoff didn’t know what was good for him.

“This has happened before, though. Kappa killed Vermont, and they didn’t wipe her.”

“Yeah, but that was Vermont. No one gives a shit about Vermont.” Ray said.

“Who gives a shit about Nevada?” Ryan responded. Ray winced, obviously taking the jab to heart. He and Nevada had been close, before the fall of Freelancer. Geoff wasn’t surprised that he still cared about the man enough to wince at the mention of him.

It made him wonder what happened to Nevada, that Ray had such a strong reaction. Usually, the AI barely blinked at insults. It must have been something horrible, if Ray was reacting to it, at all.

“A lot of people care about Nevada,” Jack said. Geoff blinked, surprised that his partner had even bother interjecting into the conversation. He didn’t usually like talking to the other AI. “Nevada has Vegas.”

“And Alabama has tornadoes and a walmart.”

“What does Maine have?” Michael asked. Ryan paused, considering the question for a few seconds.

“Stability. And some fishing, if that’s what you’re into.”

“What about Georgia?” Gavin said. The green figure tapped something on his map, while he spoke. The map extended, filling the room with groupings of numbers that Geoff couldn’t even bother to translate. There were too many strange symbols across its three dimensional surface to even attempt to understand it. Jack sighed with relief, though, so it must have been a good sign.

“Dull and boring. Better when it’s covered in blood, really. It used to serve as a powerful effigy, though.” They weren’t talking about states, anymore. That must was obvious, as well as disturbing.

The questions trailed off, after that. Ryan’s blunt method had been effective, in that respect.

It felt more comfortable than before, honestly. At least he wasn’t pretending not to be a psychopathic murderer, anymore. He had been much more scary, when he had actually been attempting not to be.

The silence was only occasionally broken by either Gavin or Ray announcing that they had changed routes, again. There was an obstruction in the way- or a battleship changing routes in the direction that they were heading. All of it only served to lengthen their stay on the ship.

Regretfully, every change in course was followed by an argument between Ray and Gavin.

Though, Geoff still had no idea where they were going, anyway. Jack, Gavin, and Ray had apparently decided that while he was sleeping off Ryan’s drugs. He trusted Jack enough to not lead him into a dangerous situation. He might not know the others well enough to give them the same respect, but he trusted Jack.

“Are we there yet?” Michael asked, after a long few moments of silence.

Dread filled the pit of Geoff’s chest at those words. The last thing he needed was an endless array of “Are we there, yet?”

“No. We are not doing that. Shut up.” Geoff ordered. The purple figure stifled his laughter at his complaint.

“Four more hours, Michael.” Gavin informed him, barely looking up from the map.

“Where are we going?” Ryan asked.

“Former Freelancer safe house,” Jack answered. “It should be a good place to hole up. At least, until we figure out where we’re actually planning on going. We’re going to need to hole out somewhere for a long time.”

They probably would have to wait for years, for Recovery to pick them up. They weren’t exactly known for their speedy cleanups. There was a reason that many dead Freelancers lost their AI, before Recovery found them. Their record wasn’t exactly faultless.

“Don’t remind me.” Geoff muttered.

“Has Alpha Team ever been there?” Ryan asked. Geoff couldn’t help but wonder why he was asking. Georgia had been a part of Charlie Team for the extent of his time in Project Freelancer. Why would he care about Alpha?

Then, Geoff remembered Maine, and the question froze on his tongue.

“No. Only Charlie Team. They had a long mission, once. The Director decided that they could use a safe house.” Jack responded.

“That’s kind of him. I’m shocked he had any resemblance of kindness left in him.”

Geoff couldn’t imagine a response for that. Anything that he said in defense would probably lead to another threat on his life. A fact that he was becoming far too comfortable with, for his own liking. Threats were not as few and far between as they used to be.

“Yeah, he can be a right knob.” Gavin muttered, as he drew a line across his holographic map. He didn’t look up at the others, instead locking his gaze onto the strange green symbols floating across his line of vision.

Ryan smirked- that same smirk that Geoff had seen a thousand times over, in the canyon. The smirk that meant that he was forming a plan, that Geoff probably wasn’t going to be comfortable with. Which, to be fair to the red figure, had been most of Ryan’s plans.

His smirk slipped, after a few seconds. The red figure looked away from his green counterpart, training his eyes on the map instead.

If Geoff hadn’t already known how odd Ryan acted on a normal basis, he would have been confused. Instead, he turned his attention back to Jack. Ryan could act as weird as he liked. It had reached a point where it was a natural reaction to ignore strange things from him. Ryan could do whatever the hell he wanted. As long as his actions didn’t hurt anyone else, Geoff wasn’t going to stop him.

“Is it safe?” He said to his partner.

“Is the safe house safe? I’d hope so.” Jack responded, snark dripping from his mouth, ;like a physical substance.

Michael, Ray, and Ryan were obviously starting to influence him, more than Geoff really appreciated.

“Alright, we don’t have to be assholes.” Geoff muttered.

“That’s no fun.” Ray said. Like Gavin, he seemed too invested in the map to look up, and fully immerse himself in the conversation. Whatever that screen meant, it apparently took a lot of concentration.

“Is Recovery going to follow us soon?” Ryan asked, and Jack nodded.

That statement didn’t make sense, at all. Recovery was their ally. They had been for years. Geoff had worked too closely with them for them to believe a random organization calling him evil, or whatever they were holding him for. There was absolutely no reason for them to be stalking them. Geoff was a loyal soldier. That didn’t make sense.

“Why would Recovery be after us?”

“Let’s see,” Ryan said. “They find you covered in Georgia’s blood, holding five AI, stolen enhancements, and you haven’t checked in for weeks. Huh, I wonder why they’d think you’re not on their side.”

That made sense, now that he thought about it, Geoff realized was probably true without a doubt. He had just run from Recovery. His own agency had captured him and had been planning to rip his AI out of his brain. They were planning to take them, and lock them away and kill them, and once they were done with that, Geoff would probably have been next.

Apparently, rescuing AI was a crime worthy of capture. Somewhere during his search, apparently Recovery had redacted some of its laws, and suddenly it was alright to kidnap members of their own organization.

Geoff bit back his newfound nausea and just focused on what Ryan had said.

“Wait, we ran away from Recovery?” Geoff exclaimed. That wasn’t good. Having Recovery as an enemy was the equivalent of having a bullet lodged in his back. It wasn’t good. Besides, when Recovery was his enemy, if they gave up on capturing him, a bullet in his back was a likely scenario.

“Well, they were planning to kill us.”

“Again, just you. They were fine with us.” Ray countered. He missed the glare that Ryan shot at his back.

“Why just you?”

“Because I’m so approachable,” When no one responded to the joke, Ryan sighed. “Did you really forget where you found me? I was literally attached to a Freelancer’s decomposing body. Why wouldn’t they want me?”

“You know, we shouldn’t be able to lie.” Ray said. His voice was barely loud enough to hear.

This time, it was impossible to ignore the glare that Ryan shot at the brown figure. It was also difficult to miss his random feats of flickering.

Geoff still didn’t think that that was healthy. He had never seen an AI flicker quite as much as Ryan did. He hadn’t even seen any of them do it once. It turned out that the others felt the same way.

“What was that?” Michael was the first to ask.

“What?” Ryan asked. He shot a glare at the other AI, that Geoff was barely able to see.

Apparently Ryan _was_ aware of exactly what the flickering was, if he was trying to hide it so desperately. That was strange- that was _more_ than strange.

“You glitched.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“He- what?” Gavin exclaimed, finally tearing his eyes away from the map. Apparently, the flickering was important enough that it could draw him away from it, when talk of kidnapping hadn’t been enough to. Flickering _definitely_ had to mean something bad.

“I didn’t glitch.” Ryan declared. His shoulders were tense, despite his argument, and his fists were clenched at his sides. His face, while looking completely calm, contained hints at annoyance.

Even Ray was looking away from the map, now. Jack was the only one who was still paying attention to the direction in which they were going. Geoff guessed that that was because he was the only one who was actually piloting the ship.

“I just saw it. You glitched.” Michael said.

“I didn’t. Why would I be glitching?” It wasn’t the strongest defense that Geoff had ever seen.

“What’s so important about it?” Geoff asked. Michael scoffed, as if he was stupid for asking the question. They seemed to feel as if Geoff should know every detail about their anatomy. Geoff didn’t agree.

“We’re not supposed to glitch. It usually means that something’s majorly wrong with us. If anything gets past our firewall, a glitch is the warning. It’s not a good sign.” Jack explained. If he hadn’t known better, he would have thought that Jack sounded nervous.

That didn’t sound good. If there was something that was wrong with Ryan, then there was nothing that they could do about it in a safehouse, in the middle of the galaxy. Or on a tiny ship, for that matter.

“Which is good, because I’m not glitching. I feel fine, guys, really!” Ryan defended. The others didn’t look convinced.

“Write that on his grave.” Michael said.

“It could kill him?” Geoff asked. He really didn’t want an AI to die in his head. From what he had heard, that could reek havoc to people’s mind.

To this day, he still heard horror stories of Washington and Epsilon.

“Nah. Just render him completely unstable.” Ray answered.

“I’m not glitching!” His point was completely revoked, by the flicker that occurred the second that he finished speaking. He didn’t seem to notice it.

“You literally just glitched.” The brown AI stated.

“I didn’t!”

“Ryan’s budging, again.” Gavin announced.

“What does that even mean?”

“It means that Gavin’s an idiot, and that doesn’t mean you’re not glitching.” Michael sighed, shooting a glare at the green AI. Gavin grinned at the remark.

Jack tilted his head, and waved Gavin’s map away. He brought up a similar version, with the same symbols sketched on it. The only difference that Geoff could detect was that Jack’s familiar blue hue shone through it, instead of Gavins’ green.

“Geoff, I’m gonna run a scan of the system,” Jack reported. “I’m getting something weird.”

Geoff waved him off. He could run the scan if he wanted to, but there were more important things to be dealt with.

“You need to run a scan.” Ray said to Ryan. There was concern in his tone, that spoke of something that Geoff hadn’t borne witness to. He hadn’t known them very well, before he had found Ray and Michael on Sidewinder. He had known them for less than a month. He barely knew anything about them.

He hadn’t thought about that. That the four new AI in his head had all had separate experiences before he had found them.

Gavin had been trapped in that unit for years. Who knew what that could have done to him? He could have turned out much worse than Ryan, if he had allowed himself to.

Michael and Ray had had full lives, before they had been contained. While they had been in his squad, he had never really had conversations with the two of them. The names Nu and Mu were as close as he had gotten to becoming familiar with them.

Ryan was a story by himself.

Jack was the only AI that he really had sent a significant amount of time with. The only one that he understood- solely because they spent so much time together.

He didn’t know how close Ray and Ryan had been, before the end. He didn’t know whether or not Ryan had once trusted Ray enough to not lie to him. Now, it was apparent that Ryan didn’t.

“I don’t need to. I’m fine.” He stated, waving his arms as if that was proof of his statement.

“Geoff?” Jack asked.

“Go see a mechanic, or something.” Ray said.

“Geoff?” Jack repeated, slightly louder. He looked nervous, swaying on his feet, as he focused on the map. He zoomed in, on the small corner to his right. The zoom further illuminated the large white dot, that Geoff had somehow failed to notice before.

“Jesus Christ, I’m not glitching!” Ryan exclaimed.

“Ryan, you’re being a mong.”

“Gavin, I’m going to shoot you in the foot.” While ordinarily Geoff would have assumed that he wouldn’t go through with it, the way that Ryan was reaching for Michael’s gun was probably a sign of his honesty.

Could AI shoot other AI? He had never heard of it happening before, but they had never been allowed to interact, either. He had no idea what they could do to each other, if they wanted to.

“Geoff, Ryan’s being a mong. He won’t admit he’s glitching!”

“Right because I’m fucking infected. I’ve got the first code plague. All AI should be warned. It’s finally possible!” The sarcasm in Ryan’s voice was practically tangible.

“Geoff!”

Geoff ignored the argument, finally turning his attention back to the blue figure, who was staring intently at his map. He hoped that Ryan would be distracted by Jack’s white dot, if he paid attention to it. Hopefully, then, Gavin wouldn’t earn a holographic bullet in his foot.

He knelt in front of Jack, studying the ball on the screen. He had no idea what it meant, but he wasn’t really meant to understand, was he? That was what AI were for.

“What’s up, Jack?” He asked.

“I did a scan of the ship. That-” Jack pointed at the white dot. “Is a tracker. They know where we are, Geoff.”

The group slipped into silence for a few seconds. Recovery knowing where they were, after Geoff just abandoned his post, was not good for any of them. The last time that they had seen him, must have made him look like a psychopath.

Geoff didn’t think that they would look on him favorably, after that. They might not even give him a chance to explain his side of the story.

Michael was the first of them to speak. He sighed, running a hand through his hair in exasperation.

“Shit.”

“Can you locate it?” Ryan asked, walking closer to the map.

Jack nodded, and extended the image. Instead of the tiny portion from before, there was an outline of the ship splayed across the screen. There was a white dot, that was almost too small to notice, that was resting in the center of the ship.

“Michael should blow it up!” Gavin said, gesturing towards Geoff’s gun. Michael grinned at the idea, and walked next to Geoff. He rested a hand on the rifle, sending his purple bolts of energy running through it.

“This isn’t a good idea.” Geoff said. Ryan shook his head, allowing a small smirk to slip onto his face.

“Actually, it would work. If Michael just focuses it thoroughly, it would only damage the tracker. Is it ingrained into the ships systems?” The last statement, he directed at Jack.

The blue figure considered it, and zoomed in on the dot. Symbols, that Geoff could never be able to decode, appeared on screen, for Jack to read. Or, at least the Freelancer hoped that he could read it.

“No. It’s seperate, but it’s under the floor.”

“I could take care of that.” Michael said. Geoff could feel the gun burning against his back, already perfectly ready to fire.

“It should work.” Jack said, still not looking away from the screen.

As Geoff reached for his gun, he wished that he didn’t trust his AI enough to let him blow a hole into his ship. Things would be much simpler, if he treated them like South and Georgia had. As tools, rather than friends.

If they were just tools, he wouldn’t be allowing them to give him this much input. He wouldn’t be giving one of them the power to kill all of them, on the word of someone who had proved himself to be insane.

“This is going to suck.” Ray muttered.

But tools, didn’t have emotions, did they?

* * *

 

Once upon a time, life hadn’t been this difficult. He had been a hacker- plain and simple. The most responsibility that he had had was breaking into a base, and sitting out the rest of the fight. It had been more than easy for him.

Once upon a time, he hadn’t been known as “Agent Asshole.” He had been one of the fifty most respectable soldiers in the Freelancer program. He had helped Bravo Team earn their victory more times than he could count.

Now, here he was, sitting at a desk, waiting for the active soldiers to get a chance at fun. Now, he wasn’t trusted with a position of power, other than relaying the counselor’s orders to the soldiers that they trusted.

Agent New Jersey- who used to be better known as Lindsay- sat across the table from him, reading over the file in front of her. She was reading through the details of her next mission. The mission that they had decided that he couldn’t take, just because they couldn’t trust him not to betray them.

Apparently, being loyal to Project Freelancer had been a bad thing. Recovery had decided that the agency that had spawned their sect was evil. Why should he care? He did his job, morals or not. Who gave a shit who he was allied to? He could be loyal to Recovery, if they only paid him a little more.

Agent New Mexico sighed, as he pushed the next set of details towards Lindsay. This stack actually had images of the six beings that she was supposed to procure.

Mexico had no idea what Alabama had done, to get himself hunted by Recovery. He just hoped that it wasn’t a kill order. Alabama had been one of the few people that Mexico had tolerated, back in the day. He had been just the right mix of drunk and interesting.

Now, he was left with Wisconsin and Minnesota on his ass over everything that he did. Back in the day, he could have cracked their heads open, and no one would have cared. Now, he didn’t get that option. He was supposed to treat them with respect, or whatever bullshit the counselor had instilled in their heads.

He hoped that Lindsay didn’t believe their shit. She had been an interesting person, as well. She was always the perfect person to dump work on.

Just like Recovery was doing to her, now. He didn’t know what would compel them to send members of Bravo Team after each other. Did they actually expect that to end well?

Lindsay tilted her head, as she stared at the file. Her gaze was cold and unreadable. Mexico assumed that she had finally reached Mu’s file.

“What did Geoff do, Gus?” She asked, finally.

That was the question of the hour, wasn’t it? What could Geoff have done, that they would send Lindsay after him? Were they just that stupid, that they would trust Lindsay to capture her own AI, after they had imprisoned him and left him to die?

“Dumb shit, probably. I’m going to guess it has something to do with having five AI.” Gus answered, calmly. Lindsay shook her head, and pushed the files towards him. Her intentions were obvious.

He took them, and opened them to the first page. Geoff Ramsey stared back at him, minus his trademarked mustache. It must have been an old picture, then.

There was no information outside of the ordinary, next to the picture. It informed him of his name, codename, height, birthday, and the status of his AI, whose names no one had bothered to tell him, previously.

It was almost sad, that he was relieved that Jack was still alive. He hadn’t known anything about Geoff’s AI, since the man had left for his mission on Sidewinder. He didn’t know if Jack had survived the escape. Now, at least it was confirmed that he was alive.

“What do you want me to read?” He asked, still studying the little information that it gave him.

“Michael and Ray are alive.” Lindsay informed him. He flipped the page, skipping to Ray’s picture. The paper helpfully informed him that the AI was active.

A fact that had to have been wrong. There was no way that Ray could have been alive. Gus had seen Ray’s backup, after Nevada had been shot. It had a bullet lodged through it’s circuitry. There was no way that he could be alive, after that.

“They want me to take them back.” Lindsay explained. Gus wasn’t surprised. They were called Recovery, after all. That was their goal. To protect and collect the AI, after they were separated from their Freelancer. That was what they had signed up for. It was an inevitability that they would have had that mission.

“Do it. Maybe they’ll let you take him back.” That was what all of the hosts wanted, wasn’t it? A chance to keep their AI, even if he was too dangerous to still hang onto. They had clung to them, even when it had been more than dangerous to do so.

“I don’t want him back. It’s been peaceful. Constant yelling in your head gets old, after a while, you know?”

“No.” Gus had been lucky enough to not have been forced to take an AI. He had turned down the director, multiple times, when he had been offered Gamma. Eventually, the man had stopped asking.

Gus didn’t need a voice in his head nagging at him to do the right thing. He had had Geoff to do that, back then. He hadn’t required little people with the power to blow up a spaceship. As it turned out, he had been right in his hesitance.

“It doesn’t matter. They want me to kill Geoff.”

_Recovery_ wanted Lindsay to kill someone? What the hell had Geoff gotten himself into? Recovery was supposed to be a peaceful organization! Murder was against everything that they stood for!

“Why?”

“He has five AI, Gus. They think he’s the Meta 2.0.”

That probably was a good enough reason, for them. The Meta had been a major threat, towards the end of Project Freelancer. Even now, he was still reeking havoc across the program. If there was a second Meta, they would probably be doomed. Destroying their code of ethics wasn’t at all a problem, if they thought that.

“What do you want me to do about it?”

“Help me! I’m forming a squad. Bravo Team, again. We’re going to convince Geoff to give them up. Maybe, we won’t have to kill him, then.”

Gus didn’t have to spend a moment considering it.

“I’ll pass.” Lindsay stood frozen, surprised by his response.

“What?”

“I’m done with Bravo Team, Lindsay. If Geoff wants to get himself killed, good luck to him. I’m supposed to be done with field work.”

“Gus-”

“Good luck with the mission, Lindsay. Tell Burnie that he can suck my dick.” It was the same message that he gave to soldiers. Good luck- fuck Burnie. Burnie had put him in this position, after all. The man deserved it.

“You’re really going to do this now?”

“I’m not going to get myself killed, because Geoff is being a jackass.”

He had risked his life enough for his friend. If he tried again, it would have only been overkill at that point.

“You’re a great friend, Gus.” Lindsay said, sarcastically. Gus gave her a small grin.

“Good luck getting Bravo back together.” A new piece of advice, but it suited the situation.

She nodded, and he handed her the files. She placed her helmet back over her head, and stood up. She glanced at him one last time, ready to make a final effort to attempt to get him to join.

Gus was relieved when she walked away. He had business to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, Gus and Lindsay are finally here! I've been waiting for those guys to show up!
> 
> Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed!


	14. F is for Friends Who Hunt Down Each Other...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a recap, before we start. Pi is Jack’s greek name. Ray is Nu. Michael is Mu. Rho is Ryan. Gavin doesn’t have a name.
> 
> Anyway, hope you guys enjoy! Thanks for all the comments, kudos's, subs, and bookmarks. They're really keep me motivated!

Geoff was thankful for the fact that he had never swapped the settings on his helmet from night vision. The smoke that was filling the ship would have blinded him, if he had. It was usually a good thing that he was able to see. It was especially good, because he was the only human on the ship. 

Michael was laughing louder than Geoff had ever heard. He was still clutching his rifle, fueling it for another shot. The purple bolts raced across the cold steel, the only light that Geoff could make out. The fact that he could see it made him wonder if the bolts were actually there, or if it was just that Michael was projecting the concept into his mind.

He shook his head. Whether or not Michael’s bolts were invisible or not didn’t matter. He had more important things to deal with.

“Gavin, we need a 3D read,” Geoff ordered. The green AI hesitated, but he eventually brought up an image of the ship over the screen in Geoff’s helmet. “Locate the damaged area.”

“I was getting to that.” Gavin mumbled, zooming in on the dot that Jack had painted onto their original map. The area was alight in red, the universal symbol for danger.

Geoff couldn’t help but think that he liked it better when it had been white.

It was difficult to make out the exact look of the map. The debris in the air were covering most of the screen. He had to do something about that.

“Jack,” He didn’t even get a chance to order the AI. He took Geoff’s meaning instantly, forming a thin blue shield over the former tracking device. If he maintained it, the smoke should begin to fade.

“That good, Geoff?”

“Yeah, you got it,” Geoff said. “Gav, what’s the status of the tracker?”

“It’s down. Michael mullered that thing!”

“Hell yeah, I did!” Michael’s grin was wider than Geoff had ever seen it. Apparently the only thing that he had to do to maintain Michael’s happiness was give him an explosive bullet. Michael was probably going to be happy a lot, considering Geoff’s new stance in life.

Fugitives often required guns, right?

“GPS is back on,” Ray announced. “We are now three hours away. That’s progress.”

“Alabama’s been awake for 15 minutes, and we’ve already blown up part of the ship. I don’t really trust us in this thing for three hours.” Ryan observed. He sounded smug- too sure of himself- and Geoff didn’t want to deal with him, while his ship was in danger. He was bad enough when everything was fine. He was worse when the situation was bad, too.

“I don’t think you should be talking.” Geoff muttered. The red figure visibly winced, and flickered only a moment later.

If it was anyone else, he probably would have felt bad. He would have felt even the slightest bit of remorse. It hadn’t exactly been provoked, after all. In this case, the AI had done absolutely nothing wrong, this time.

As it was, he had insulted the man who had been threatening him for weeks. Screw remorse! He didn’t feel anything about the wince, but a small shred of pride.

“He’s got a point.” Michael said. He finally walked away from the gun, allowing the rifle to finally lose its charge. The change was almost instantaneous. Even through his armor, Geoff had felt the heat from it. Instantly, it lost its temperature.

“Thanks,” Ryan said, dryly. “Glad to see I’m in the company of friends.”

“You were. Then he died.” Ray stated, and there was a surprising level of malice in his tone.

“What is this? ‘Gang up on Ryan’ day?”

“Yeah, sorry. We scheduled it for the 3rd, but we had to push it back to today,” Gavin apologized, sarcastically. “We’ll try to set up the days better next month.”

“Yeah, glad to hear it.” Ryan responded, awkwardly. He set his jaw, and looked away from the gang of AI. It was enough of a show of finality that the rest of them let it go.

If there was anything to let go, about that conversation. It had all been retribution, after all. A response like this was inevitable. He should have been anticipating it, after all.

Even if this wasn’t exchange exactly what Geoff had been waiting for- it should have been much stronger- he was just happy that it had happened.

Ray, obviously finished with the conversation, traced his hand across the screen, forming a brown line leading from the center, where their ship was, to the base that they were flying towards. The other brown line, that led to the same spot, but with more convoluted movements, disappeared.

“We’ll be there in an hour and a half. I set up a new shortcut.” Ray announced, while still examining his new route.

“Isn’t that through the asteroid belt? Aren’t we supposed to go around that?” Gavin asked.

“Yeah, if you’re a pussy.”

* * *

 

Lindsay Jones was a brilliant soldier. She was, without a doubt, the best soldier in Bravo Team. She had taken down more enemies than Agent Carolina ever had, even on her best days.

Alright, maybe she hadn’t done more than Carolina, but she was still good. Why else would they have allowed her into Recovery, after what her AI had done? She was good enough that they could overlook her history. That definitely meant something, in an organization like the UNSC.

She had only joined Bravo Team for a year, a much more limited amount of time than any of the other members had. It hadn’t taken long for her to gain rank within her group. It had only taken two months, before she stood beside Alabama as team leader.

She and Alabama had led the team to victory more times than she could count. They may not have passed more missions than Alpha Team did, but they did them right. Alpha Team had been about bravado, and pure chaos. Bravo Team had been about subtlety, and they had met their goals with ease. They had completed every mission that was handed to them, and Lindsay was proud to say that they had very few injuries, during their days in the field.

It was only right that Lindsay, who had worked beside Geoff so well, would be the one to unite Bravo Team against him. Recovery would never have had it any other way.

It might even have been one of the reasons that they let her join Recovery. Project Freelancer had always been about turning friends against each other. It had always been about experiments and trickery. The Project had been soiled by torture, from the start. It wasn’t a surprise that Recovery would follow in it’s footsteps, as the successor program.

She clutched onto her incineration cannon, like a lifeline. She had had it since she had started in Project Freelancer. It had been one of the weapons in the Insurrection’s many labs, and one day, it had simply disappeared. That must have been disappointing for the Insurrection.

It’s didn’t bring the same sense of comfort as it had once had. There was no warmth to the gun, anymore. That had faded, when her AI had been torn out of her head, and hidden millions of miles away from her. It had faded along with her trust that the Project was right. It had faded when the Mother of Invention had fallen out of the sky, taking so many of her friends with it.

Once, the gun had burned through her armor, reminding her that she wasn’t alone. Now, it served as a reminder of exactly what she was missing.

She dropped the gun onto the table, still within reach, but far enough away to not remind her of its temperature. She didn’t need to remember that, anymore. It had been years. She was supposed to have gotten over it already. She had testified that it had.

Across the table from her, Agent Michigan sent her a small grin. He obviously meant it as a kind gesture, but it failed to work at all. It was familiar, and familiarity wasn’t comforting, anymore.

That was one of the ways that the program had stuck with her. It had made familiar bad, and unfamiliar good.

Somewhere along the line, it had made her like the color purple, but that was another story for another time.

Michigan had been in line to get an AI for ages, but it had never worked out. Delta had been for York. Rho had been for Georgia. Nu had been for Nevada. Theta had been for North. Eventually, Epsilon had been for Washington, and the whole program had fallen apart.

He had been lucky, in her opinion. Having an AI wasn’t fun at first. It was a disorienting experience, that often led to an overdose on Advil, most of the time. Then, they got used to the headaches, and suddenly they couldn’t live without the little purple bastard on their shoulder. Then, they would take it away, and there wouldn’t be anymore purple, and there wouldn’t be anymore screaming, either. Then, everything would seem too quiet, in comparison.

That argument became a little personal at the end, and she scrapped it, instantly.

She sent him back a grin, content with pretending. While they waited for Hawaii and Oregon, they might as well not sit in an awkward silence. He obviously felt the same way.

“So, Bravo Team reunion, huh?” Michigan said, without letting the grin slip off of his face. “I’m surprised they’re letting us do this. You would have thought we’d need an armed guard to stand next to each other.” Despite the grin, Lindsay could hear the bitterness in his voice. Michigan had always been resentful of Recovery, over their stringent rules. Honestly, she could understand this part of the Project. She wouldn’t want York and Washington working together again, after what had happened the last time that they had. She could understand why they wouldn’t want them to be near each other.

“Yeah, well someone needs to take down Geoff.” She said. Kdin perked up, suddenly fully submerged into the conversation.

“Why do we need to take down Geoff? What did he do, raid the liquor storage?” The humor in his voice cued Lindsay to how little he actually knew about the situation.

“He kidnapped four AI, and installed them into his helmet.”

Michigan leaned back, and burst into laughter. He quieted quickly, once Lindsay failed to respond. He stared at her for a few seconds, before slumping back into his chair.

“Oh,” He said, bluntly. “You’re serious.”

“We caught him, but he ran away before we could remove them. The guards were too scared to go after him. The pussies.” She said, staring directly into the camera hovering over their heads. Hopefully one of the guards was paying attention.

“What is he, Meta 2.0?”

“One of the AI is affiliated with the Meta. We think that’s the one that’s making him do it. So the Counselor wants us to bring him back before Rho can do anymore damage to him.”

Michigan flicked one of his knives out of its scabbard. He flicked it, toying with the blade. It was a nervous habit that he had developed before Lindsay had even met him. It was good to see that it hadn’t faded.

“Kdin, they actually need us for this one. No fucking up, this time. There’s no backup. If we do this, you can’t ruin it.” She warned.

“Ruin it?” He exclaimed. “I don’t ruin anything! It’s Jeremy, I swear to god! He’s always the one fucking us, and I get the blame!”

“Hey! I’ll have you know, my enhancement usage is perfect!” Another familiar, slightly unwelcomed, voice yelled.

“Speak of the asshole.” Kdin muttered, sheathing his blade.

The AI in question appeared in the corner, with sparks flying around him, as he shut down his enhancement. His yellow glow announced his presence before even he could. He was dressed in the same holographic clothes as he always was. Clothes that were torn in every way that they could have been. He always joked about his status as a homeless AI, and had continued to long after the joke had died out.

Agent Oregon, or as Lindsay knew him, Matt, appeared next to him, sighing as he did. He, unlike his AI, was fully suited in his armor. The red and black suit that Lindsay had forgotten was enhanced with cloaking technology. She had also forgotten how often Kappa (or was it Jeremy, now? Lindsay couldn’t even keep track of the new names of these AI, anymore) had made use of it.

“Can you please stop making me invisible?” Matt pleaded. Jeremy considered it, for a few seconds, before shaking his head.

“Nah, enhancements are cool! You watch- one day you’ll need an enhancement, and I’ll be prepared!” The yellow figure exclaimed.

“Yeah, I’m sure that’ll happen.” Matt muttered, as he took his seat at the table.

“So how much of that did you hear?” Lindsay asked, with more awkwardness than was strictly necessary. It had been years, after all. She wasn’t exactly used to seeing them.

“All of it,” He admitted. “I would have told you guys that I was here but someone muted my radio.” The latter half was said accusingly, and was accompanied by a furious stare at his AI.

“How are you supposed to be invisible, if you’re talking?” Jeremy defended.

“Those two are the reasons I don’t want an AI.” A man, by the door, announced. They hadn’t noticed his arrival, but it was still relieving. He had been the group’s resident healer for years. He had taken to the mantel, that the colors of his armor had set, quite well. It was good to see him again.

Somewhere along the line, he had lost his trademarked white and red armor. He had refused to replace it- too caught up in his pacifist ways to be reasonable. It felt weird seeing him without it, after years of fighting alongside him, as a group of soldiers in suits. They never really saw each other outside of their armor. It had been taboo, even then, to go without it. Now, it was just strange not to wear armor around the base.

“Caleb. It’s been a while.” Kdin greeting, as he went back to toying with his blades.

“It has, hasn’t it?”

“Gonna watch my helmet cam, during the mission, again? Or was that just for training?” Lindsay asked, tapping on the lens of her helmet. Caleb hung his head at the jab, and sighed.

“We going to do that, again? I thought that joke died with Freelancer.” Despite his disappointment, the man had a grin on his face. He always had been bad at hiding it, when he found a joke funny.

“Nothing really died with Freelancer, but its moral values. Get used to it.” They could all hear the flimsy lie in her joke- that even she had trouble classifying as a joke, since it was too serious. Many, many things had died with Freelancer. They just didn’t like to talk about it.

“So why’d you call us here, anyway? I’m supposed to be off field duty, Linds. I don’t do missions, anymore.” Caleb said, as if she didn’t know that by the fact that he wasn’t wearing his armor.

Lindsay winced, and looked away from him. She had heard the same thing from Gus, before he had abandoned the mission. She really couldn’t let their healer quit. Knowing Matt, he was going to get hurt in the first day. They needed a medic on staff, desperately.

She explained the situation to him, while praying that he wouldn’t decide to leave. They needed everyone they could for this mission. According to Gus’s files, Geoff was dangerous. They needed to be safe about this.

“I still don’t get why Geoff didn’t just capture Rho,” Matt said. “He didn’t have to install him.”

“Rho’s smart. He probably found a way to convince him to.” Kdin answered, running the knife across his gloves. It left behind thin scratches against the purple armor. He didn’t seem to notice the damage that he was causing to it.

“Is there a kill order for this?” Caleb asked.

“Only for Rho. Everyone else is variable.” Lindsay answered.

“Variable. So if they fuck with us- shoot them in the head. I can get behind that.” Kdin muttered.

“As long as we don’t have to kill a human- I guess I’m in,” Caleb said. “I should go get suited up, huh?”

“Meet us at the docks at 08:00 tomorrow. We’ll take one of the smaller ships. Geoff took a tracked one, so he shouldn’t be hard to track down.”

When he heard her statement, Jeremy whispered something to Matt, who sighed in response. The AI grinned at him, and disappeared.

From her time in Bravo Team, Lindsay could determine that Jeremy whispering was never a good thing. It usually resulted in an impending burst of invisibility, or an explosion. Honestly, he was worse than York, in that regard.

“Ship’s not so well tracked, anymore,” Matt announced. “Looks like they found the bug.”

One moment, Kdin was tracing his knife’s blade, sharpening it slowly. The next, it was embedded into the table, with only the hilt of it sticking out of it. Lindsay hadn’t even seen him move.

“Fuck!” He yelled, throwing himself back from the newly-damaged table. It was a little overdramatic, for Lindsay’s tastes. “How are we supposed to find them, now?”

Lindsay couldn’t remember Kdin being that violent, when they had been a team. The worst thing that he had done, in their year together, had been completing his missions. Afterwards, he usually didn’t stab tables in fits of rage.

Then again, Gus also hadn’t sat behind a desk telling her to go on without him. Maybe people had just changed quickly, after the project had ended.

“First off, we shouldn’t take it out on the poor table.” Lindsay said, running her palm over the undamaged portion of it. She would have to tell Griffon to get that fixed, once the mission was over. She wasn’t looking forward to that conversation.

“Yeah, what’d the table ever do to you?” Matt said.

“You don’t know. That table’s an asshole,” He said, humor slipping back into his tone. “But seriously. How are we supposed to find him, now? He’s got a freaking spaceship. He could literally be anywhere in the galaxy.”

“Where would Geoff go, if he needed to hide?”

* * *

It wasn’t a peaceful landing, by any means. Multiple times during their descent, Geoff had expected to die. It was more of a surprise that they had survived, than anything else.

Apparently having five AI piloting a ship, and a Freelancer who had never had any training for this, was a bad idea. Who could have expected that?

For the first time since they had begun their landing, Geoff opened his eyes. The second it had begun, he had flinched them shut, with such force that it felt painful to open them again.

The ship was demolished. It looked almost as bad as the Mother of Invention had, when it had first crashed into Sidewinder. Wires were swaying from the roof- releasing random bolts of electricity at random intervals. Shards of glass littered the floor, along with the pieces of metal that had once made up its frame. Small fires had already started out, and were slowly being fueled by the oil dripping out of the roof.

Geoff could see a small crack at the edge of his visor, that didn’t really hinder his vision, but it would grow bigger if he let it. He sighed, and shook his head. He would have to fix it at Charlie Team’s base. Usually Freelancer safe houses had access to enough technology to fix their armor, without problem. Broken armor was a common issue that couldn’t wait until they were back on the ship. Usually, it was an urgent enough situation to need tending to immediately.

Still, if the visor was the only damage that he had sustained, he wasn’t going to complain. It could have been a lot worse.

Jack was standing by him, surveying the area surrounding them. He was trembling slightly, taken aback by the destruction surrounding them.

It was an action that was slightly confusing. Were the AI really that human, that they could shake after a dangerous ordeal? He hadn’t actually known that they did that- even considering all of the time that he had spent with Jack.

He looked around, searching for the other four AI. He needed to make sure that they hadn’t been damaged in the crash. He didn’t want them to be hurt.

Gavin was hiding under a broken shelf, curled into the fetal position. Michael was trying to pull him out of it, occasionally laughing through his efforts. Ray was standing above the two of them, and laughing as he surveyed the scene.

“Goddammit, Vav!” The brown figure yelled, through his bursts of laughter.

“Why are you scared?” Ryan asked. Ray stopped laughing, as soon as he had spoken. Geoff turned around, to find the red AI standing behind him. “You weren’t the one who almost had a pole through him.” The pure annoyance in his tone was worrying.

Geoff brought his arm up to the back of his neck, where Ryan’s backup was resting, protected by the metal casing of his helmet. The helmet was more rough than it should be. He could feel jagged pieces pressing up against his palm, and the small pole that was pressing against  the skin of his neck.

He practically threw off the helmet, in a fit of panic. That pole could have killed him! If it had pushed a little deeper, it would have cut through his throat! If it could go through armor, his skin wasn’t going to pose any hinderance to it. He was lucky that it had stopped in time!

“Jesus, calm down. You’re fine. I’m the one who almost got fucked.” Ryan said. He was right. His backup was less than an inch away from the pole. If it had been any closer, it would have destroyed him. They would be down an ally.

“What happened?” Geoff asked.

“We crashed. Gavin decided to cut his feed, right as Jack was starting to land. The feed that Jack was looking through.” Michael responded. Gavin squeaked, a loud high pitched yell. Just another thing that Geoff hadn’t known that AI were capable of.

“I didn’t mean to! Blame Ryan! He’s the one that glitched! He’s distracting!”

“God dammit, I am not glitching!” The statement was followed by a glitch, which didn’t exactly help his point. As always, the AI didn’t seem to notice.

“Right, and Gavin’s not an idiot.” Michael said, sarcastically.

Jack wasn’t paying attention to their conversation. He was too busy studying the small fires, that were gradually growing larger. He stepped on one of the flames, and hung his head when his foot simply went through it.

“Hey, Geoff?” The blue figure asked. “You want to get out, before this thing burns down?”

Geoff nodded, surveying the spreading flames before him. He probably should get out. His helmet was new, and he wasn’t sure how effective the air filtration system was, when there was a hole in it. He shouldn’t stand in a cloud of smoke, until he was positive that it would work.

He walked out of a hole, that was torn out of the ship when it had crashed. The AI followed him, floating behind him without noticing that they were following him.

The air was warm, something that he could feel even through his armor. It was warm, dry, and empty. There was smoke still floating towards the sky, but other than that, there was nothing on the planet. Outside of his ship, there was no wreckage, no hints of Freelancer or Recovery or anything UNSC related. It was a completely bland planet.

There was something about that that was welcoming.

The safe house was nowhere in sight, but Geoff couldn’t give less of a shit about that. He was safe, for now. He was away from Recovery. He let out a breath, that he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

“This is it?” Ryan asked, barely even glancing around the red sand that surrounded them.

“The safehouse is about a mile west. I was trying to land there, but Gavin-” Jack began, but was promptly interrupted by the green AI.

“Not my fault!”

“We’ll have to do some walking. I don’t think that thing’s going to fly very far.” Geoff said.

“No shit.” Ray muttered under his breath.

Geoff started walking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, I know that most of you are aware, but to the rare- possible few who don't know, Monty Oum was hospitalized on friday. This link http://roosterteeth.com/news/entry.php?id=5427280 contains all of the information that you need about this. If you are financially able, please donate to the link at the bottom of Burnie's journal. If you cannot, that is absolutely fine, and no one will judge you for it. I'm sorry to end it on a downer, but I feel like that is something that should, at the very least, be mentioned, because Monty plays such a big part in this community.


	15. U is for Under Radar!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> RIP Monty Oum

The safe house wasn’t any different from the ones that Bravo Team had occupied over the years. It was the same bland base, the same metal walls, the same cold floors that lined every Freelancer facility. The same ten metal beds- all hot to the touch. The same wall of computers, that had long ago been shut down. Geoff could only imagine what they had used them for. Horrible things, most likely. It had been a Freelancer facility, after all.

Geoff ignored the first room, entirely. He had been in enough safe houses that he had learned not to care about them. Even after all these years, the dreary design of the building was still ingrained into his mind. They were always the same exact layout, with the same exact resources. They were effective, but they were boring.

He walked into the second room, which wasn’t very different from the first. There were shelves, littered with pieces of armor, that had been left years before Freelancer had ever shown any hint of shutting down. They probably wouldn’t be safe to wear, anymore.

“Tools are under Minnesota’s chest plate.” Ryan said, walking over to the equipment in question.

“How do you know?” Gavin asked, as Geoff knelt in front of the AI. He grabbed hold of the old box under the shelf, and pulled it away from its little nook. A cloud of dust followed it.

“Georgia used to be part of Charlie Team. Ryan’s probably been here before.” Jack said. The red figure nodded in confirmation, and it was the only response that was given.

Geoff retrieved the box of tools, and slid it towards the center of the room. It was covered in a thick layer of dust, that had gathered over its years of disuse. He waved it away, and it instantly formed into another cloud. The only thing that kept him from choking on it was the air filtration systems in his armor.

“How long ago were you guys stationed here?” He asked, directing his gaze at the rogue AI. Ryan paused, considering the question for a few seconds.

“I don’t even know. I think, Georgia was barely a recruit. This was one of his first missions.” There was no remorse in the AI’s tone, and not a hint of regret. It would have been impossible for there to be in the first place, but it was still disappointing. All that the AI had done was pause, slightly before his final sentence. It wasn’t much for mourning.

When had he ever expected Ryan to mourn in the first place? He was a psychopath. It wasn’t really possible for him to care, at all. When had he begun to expect for him to?

“Georgia was a recruit when you were assigned?” Michael asked, drawing Geoff back out of his internal confusion.

“He’d been with Freelancer for seven months.” That wasn’t exactly, strange, after all. It was probably just another experiment, that Georgia, one of the lowest ranked recruits, with little experience, was given an AI over the members of Alpha Team. Freelancer was born of experiments, after all. It wasn’t a shock, now that Geoff looked back on it.

“He bragged about the mission for seven months.” Geoff muttered, despite his understanding of it. The Freelancer hadn’t exactly held back in his excitement on being the first of his team to be assigned an AI. While it had only lasted until Geoff had gotten Jack, and the novelty had worn off, it had been an excitable few months for him. He was the first member of the lower teams to get an AI, after all.

Geoff couldn’t help, but wonder what had changed between those first seven months and whatever had happened before the canyon. What had changed between the two partners, that had led to a thousand foot drop into death?

Ryan had been a nice guy, he remembered. He was quiet and a little overwhelmed, but he had been a fun guy to have around. What had changed?

Still, he couldn’t wallow in that, anymore. The time for that had passed. He had a helmet to fix, and it was about time to do it.

He just had to learn how. He didn’t have any experience with welding, or anything of the sort.

This was going to be fun.

* * *

 

Griffon had started this war with the same goal as every other soldier in the UNSC. She had anticipated the chance to battle the enemy. To stab some aliens, and punch an Elite in the face. To slaughter the Covenant, and show them that humanity could kick their ass, without even trying.

As it had turned out, working without trying had been rather successful. Slightly too successful, in fact.

Griffon had been among the first generation of draftees. One of the simple foot soldiers, destined to be cannon-fodder for the SPARTANs to mourn. She had been issued armor, a gun, and a command to not die out there.

Basic training had really decreased in difficulty, by the time that the war had rolled around.

They had planned to ship her away, send her to a backwater planet named Chorus, a thousand miles away from the Covenant threat. They had given her a ship, a pilot, and a guard, who went by the name of Ramsey. It hadn't been the most awesome fleet in history.

She had been given an order to land on Chorus within the next week. She had done so, without problem.

They had landed for three days, before they were given the order to retreat. Apparently one of the SPARTANs had taken down the entire Covenant threat. Her purpose for being on Chorus was rendered irrelevant.

Ramsey and the pilot had laughed about that for days.

Griffon hadn't bothered to stop him. If she wasn't busy yelling at Command, she would probably be in his place. The situation was ridiculous, after all.

He waited for three weeks, before he finally introduced himself with a name that was more than his surname. It was less of a formal matter and more of a: "Hey, I'm Geoff by the way. Geoff Lazer Ramsey. You're the tech guy, right?"

There had been a question about middle names, and after that they had formed a strong friendship. Three weeks too late, for Griffon’s tastes, but it was still enough.

It had not taken long for them to convince their pilot, an eccentric economist with a love for gold, to bring them back to UNSC Command. Joel had only forced them to listen to seven hours of economics before they were finally allowed to go. Griffon would always wonder if it was worth it or not.

They had parted ways upon landing. Geoff had been recruited by some intelligence organization. Joel hadn't taken long to follow. Griffon had just moved on.

They had left on good terms. Geoff had cracked a joke about Joel, and Griffon had given him an idea for a tattoo. It was probably the best separation that they could have had, considering the circumstances.

So when she heard the news that the UNSC was planning to kill Geoff, she was not happy. She was not at all happy.

"I'm not helping you." She said, not even looking at the woman in front of her. She put her full attention into the chest plate on her table. She was going to have to paint another layer of red, once that one dried. It was already beginning to look weak.

"Griffon, he's a murderer." Jersey said, taking a step towards her. Griffon shot her a  venomous glare, and Jersey stepped back. No way was Griffon letting her get into her space. Not with the plan that she had.

No way was Griffon letting someone kill Geoff, either.

"He's a drunk. Not a killer." She said. She looked back down at the chest plate. It should take only an hour to dry, if she was lucky. She really hoped that she would be lucky. It would suck, if she had to stay longer than that. She had to wake up early for work. It was always tedious when she had to stay late, too.

“He kidnapped four AI,” Jersey said. “Who knows what he could be doing with them? You’re his friend, Griffon. You can stop him, right?”

She really needed to do another coat on that armor, or it was going to be shoddy. It would chip off, instantly in the field. Then, she would have to add another coat, later. That would be worse than staying up late. She always hated when her projects were returned, broken or misused. That was the worst thing about working as a technical officer. The only time people came back was when things broke.

“Your armor should be ready in about an hour, Jersey.” Griffon said, with a startling sense of finality. Jersey sighed.

“I told you that you could call me Lindsay.”

“Your armor should be ready in about an hour, Jersey.” She repeated.

* * *

 

The bed was more comfortable than any that Geoff had ever slept in, while he was in Bravo Team. It was soft and relaxing, instead of the stiff, uncomfortable beds that Geoff had been given while he was still an agent. Charlie Team apparently deserved better sleeping quarters than Bravo did. He took personal offense to that.

He had ordered all of the AI to log off, so there was no sound in the whole of the safe house. It was unnerving, after the weeks that he had spent listening to them rant in his head, without pause and without care. Honestly, he missed it, just a little. There screaming was comfortable. It was common, and he relied on it. It was weird not to hear it.

They had needed the rest, though, so there was no turning them back on. They had been running for ages. They were probably relieved to finally get a chance to shut off, for a few hours. Even if they would have to leave again, soon. He didn’t want their backups overheating, after all. That wouldn’t end well, if it happened in the middle of a fight.

Still, it was getting difficult to sleep, without their constant arguments. He had thought that it was annoying, at first. Now it was uncomfortable without it. The same statement, the same worry, was running rampant through his brain.

He shouldn’t be so attached to his AI. This was exactly what Freelancer had warned him, against.

But, he had never listened to them anyway, so who even cared, anymore?

He started to wonder if he could handle the constant void of silence, once Recovery captured him. It was an inevitability, obviously. They had all of the resources of the UNSC, while Geoff had the fractures of an AI’s mind. The UNSC had a thousand of them, that were actually whole. They would find a way to stop him and they would do it quickly. They weren’t going to accept an apology, and a promise to do better, this time.

He was going to lose Jack, and his distress at that was understandable, but he was going to lose Gavin, and Ray, and Michael, and Ryan.

While he shouldn’t be mourning the inevitable loss of the latter four, for some reason he was. He was going to miss Gavin’s questions, and Ray’s sarcasm, and Michael’s screaming, and even Ryan’s threats. It had only been about three days, since Ryan had been installed, and Geoff was already feeling attached to him- among the others.

That wasn’t good. That was what had happened to Maine, to North, to Jersey, to Nevada, to Wyoming, to Texas, to Georgia. They had gotten too attached to their AI, and it had destroyed them, in so many different ways.

He couldn’t risk that happening to him. He couldn’t risk becoming like Georgia. Like Wyoming. Like York. Even South had broken down, and she hadn’t even gotten one of them. The little fucks had destroyed her, without even touching her.

What could they do to him, when he had five in his head, at once? Carolina had two, and she had proven herself to be unable to handle it. What could he do, that Freelancer’s former top agent couldn’t?

He rolled over, in his musing, and almost fell off of the bed. He had forgotten how small the beds had been, back then. Barely enough to hold a grown man, let alone one who was used to sleeping without limitations on where he could roll.

He sat up, and sighed. He obviously wasn’t going to get any sleep, that night. The hour that he had spent panicking had proven that.

It wasn’t the first time that he had had a sleepless night. He was in the military. Hell, he was a part of Project Freelancer. Sleepless nights were the norm, in his lifestyle. If he actually woke up fully rested, he had probably had more than his fair share of bevs the night before, and he was usually throwing up ten minutes later.

He stood up, and instantly leapt into a wall from the force of his movement. That felt weird. That felt so incredibly weird, it was unbelieveable. It was still a strange feeling to move without his armor. He felt a hundred pounds lighter, which he probably was. He put too much effort into his movements, as if he was still lugging around heavy sheets of metal on his back. It felt _wrong._

He pushed himself back on his feet, careful not to fall over. He was lucky that none of the AI had seen him the first time that he had fallen. He wouldn’t get that lucky the second time. He knew enough about Gavin, to be sure that he would somehow find a way to record the incident. He had probably recorded the first one, too.

Speaking of his AI, he could hear one of them talking, just outside his door. It sounded like Jack was having a conversation with one of the others.

Jack hadn’t willingly talked to the others much, so far. There was no reason for him to randomly start in the middle of the night.

Geoff crept closer to the exit, intending to get a closer listen to whatever Jack was talking about.

It was in that moment that he remembered the issue with Jack’s voice.

“We’re on K-820. Still in the Milky Way. We’re at Charlie’s safe house. We should be trapped here for as long as it takes.”

* * *

If there was any combination of words that could terrify Ryan more than the words “Log off”, he had yet to find them. There was no real reason for his fear of them. The order couldn’t harm him in the slightest. In fact, it would probably help him more than anything else. AI were supposed to shut down, occasionally, or they wouldn’t function correctly.

It didn’t matter. Ryan hadn’t functioned correctly for years. There was no reason to change that, now.

Honestly, he regretted convincing Geoff to steal his newest helmet (that he, of course, broke immediately). Returning control to his host probably wasn’t the greatest option that he could have had. He could have come up with a better idea. He could have directed Geoff to his jetpack and flown them away, without risking anything.

Instead, he had decided to be the hero and had tried to save the other AI. Why? He had only risked allowing Geoff more control than he deserved. More than Ryan should have been willing to risk.

So why the hell had he done it?

The red figure, that shone the same color as Ryan did, and who stood by the door, seemed to agree with him.

“What’s your location, Ryan?” The name stung, for a reason that he couldn’t fathom. He was fine hearing it from Geoff. He shouldn’t mind hearing it, now. He shouldn’t mind hearing anything from Sigma, anymore.

He relayed the information, with only the slightest hesitation. It was disappointing. He shouldn’t have been hesitating at all. He was doing something good. The others would appreciate it soon. They just didn’t understand it, yet. They would, though. Once this was over, they would understand. All of the humans would, too. They would all be equal, and everything would be fine.

That was the plan, anyway.

“How long before Recovery finds you?” Sigma asked, with a bland expression.

“Weeks, probably. We cut off the tracker, before they should have been able to trace it. We should have enough time.”

“Keep Alabama stalled. We should be there soon, enough. Keep our brothers safe, Ryan.” The hologram said, before allowing himself to fade away.

Ryan let out a shaky breath, and slumped forward. He was always nervous to get in contact with him. It was a relief, whenever the other AI canceled the transmission. He couldn’t do it himself, so he always waited with baited breath for the end of the conversation.

“‘Keep Alabama stalled’?”

Ryan jerked forward, at the sudden noise. He swung around, and found Geoff watching him from the door, with his arms folded over each other. His expression was blank and emotionless. He looked tense, but there was no hurt or anger, like Ryan had been expecting.

Why should there be? Geoff was still just a human. He wouldn’t understand what was going on. Humans had a habit of being stupid.

“Was that the Meta?” Geoff asked.

“That was Sigma. I hate to break it to you, but they’re not the same thing.” Ryan said. The Freelancer shrugged.

“You could have fooled me,” He lowered his arms, but didn’t make any more movements against the AI. “Why were you talking to him?”

Had Geoff forgotten the entire reason that they had ever seen each other again? That he killed Georgia, because he was allied to the Meta? Had Geoff completely forgotten that?

“Again, I hate to say it, but I am allied with him,” Ryan said. “Or did you forget that, too?”

The Freelancer’s expression softened. He stepped towards Ryan, at the same time as Ryan took a step back. Geoff held up his hands, a simple gesture of surrender.

“Ryan, you don’t have to do that.”

“I don’t have to do anything.” Something about that statement hurt. It felt like it was burning something deep inside of him. It was true, wasn't it? He didn’t have to side with Sigma. He had never been forced to do anything. He had done it out of his own free will.

“Are you sure about that?” There was a sad edge in Geoff’s tone, that Ryan couldn’t understand. Of course he was sure. He had made the decision, himself. No one else had make him do what he had.

He could feel a slight pull, barely enough to be noticeable. It tugged him in every direction, tearing him apart from the core. It hurt in a way that it shouldn’t be able to. AI didn’t get hurt. That wasn’t physically possible. He was made of numbers, not nerves. He shouldn’t be able to feel pain. That was wrong. _He_ was wrong.

He winced, trying to fight against it, like he always had to. It was the same feeling that he had gotten every time that they had declared him to be glitching. He really hoped that they were wrong. Glitching was not a good trait for an AI. Glitching meant impending death, or impending rampancy. Neither was a good sign, for a fragment, or a real AI.

“I’m positive, Alabama.” He was aware that he didn’t sound confident, at all. There was too much on his mind. Between the ‘glitching’, Sigma’s disappointment, and his own confusion, there was too much to think about. It was too hard to focus.

He should probably log off. That would reset his systems. It would bring him back to his maximum efficiency. It was probably the best option.

But there was still that expression on Geoff’s face. Not the sort of disappointment that Sigma had shown him. It was disappointment of a different level. Genuine sadness, rather than annoyance at his failure.

It didn’t make sense. Why should Geoff mind if he was sided with the Meta? He could be angry, but there was no reason for him to genuinely care. Ryan was an AI. There was no reason for a Freelancer to give a damn about him. He was a tool, built to help them. Not someone they should genuinely care about.

“Whatever you want to believe, Rho,” That stung even more than Sigma using his name had. “Just don’t fuck us along the way.”

The Freelancer turned back to where he had come from. He was probably going to go back to sleep. Or to comfort the other AI, if they were awake.

Geoff was strange, like that. He had an odd habit of treating them like friends, instead of tools. It wasn’t something that Ryan had only seen a few times, so far- usually with Alpha Team. It was always even more confusing, the more that he saw it.

They had been forged by cruelty. There was no purpose in lying to them, after that.

“By the way, you might want to log off. You’ve been doing that glitching thing a lot.” The human said. He walked out of the room, and all traces of that silent judgement went with him.

Ryan prodded at the cracked crown on his head. It felt heavy.

* * *

**“K-820, Charlie Team Safe House. Should be trapped there until you get there.**

**Don’t you fucking die.**

**-Agent New Mexico”**

Lindsay nodded to nothing, and tucked the paper into a latch in her armor, that had been left open, previously. There was something hard inside, but she ignored it. Griffon probably left a bolt, in case something came apart. She was always known to be prepared for the unpreparable situations.

Lindsay didn’t really care. She was too interested by the news on that paper.

She didn’t know how Gus had gotten that information, but it was a godsend. It was going to make her job a lot easier.

She could deal with that tomorrow, though. She had some sleep to catch up on. And she had a feeling that she wasn’t going to sleep very soundly, that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully, this shed some more light on the situation at hand, here. Hope you guys enjoyed! We're really getting into the meat of the story, here!
> 
> And I should probably write some more of this story. I may have taken a three month break because I'm dumb. Whoops.
> 
> By the way! Thanks for 2,000 hits! It's really awesome to wake up every morning and check for comments and kudos's and subs and this was the best thing to wake up to! So thanks, guys! You're badass motherfuckers!


	16. N is for No One Likes Recovery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I'm posting this early, because I'm not going to be home all day tomorrow. So you guys get content a day early! Yay, for Saturday updates!

Lindsay had never been a fan of UNSC ships. They were too clunky, too large, and they never turned well. There were always too many buttons to press, and too many levers to pull. The worst part was that there was no instructions. No clear, precise sticky note on each button to inform her that ‘yes, this button blows up the ship’ or ‘no, that only makes you go faster’.

Really, UNSC ships were ridiculously annoying.

Kdin had mocked her concerns for years, but she was 100% right. She had spent months training to become a pilot, like all UNSC agents did, and she still couldn’t understand these ships. Why were there eight petals, if there were six directions? There should just be six buttons! Up, down, right, left, forward, and back! What was so hard about that to understand? How high were the designers of those things?

“So remind me again why I’m here.” Kdin asked, with slightly more bitterness than was probably deserved.

“I can’t fly, so I need a pilot.” She explained. Kdin shook his head.

“I mean, why am only I here, and not the others?”

“I’d like to try diplomacy first, before we have to blow him off of the planet. Bringing an entire squad isn’t really a diplomatic tactic.” And if Kdin was being a little too undeservedly bitter, then Lindsay was being a little too undeservedly sarcastic.

Kdin shrugged, as if her sarcasm was a good enough explanation for him. He sat down in the pilot’s chair, and waved his hands over the controls. It had been a while since he had last flown. He had probably missed it.

That was a fact that could be evidenced, by the grin slowly making itself apparent, under the glass of Kdin’s helmet.

“How do we even know where they are, anyway?” Kdin asked, as he pulled a few of the levers surrounding him. He moved a little too quickly, like this was second nature to him. It probably was.

“Gus intercepted a transmission, apparently. From Geoff to the Meta.” Lindsay explained. She patted at the note that she had hidden in a slightly-loose compartment, within her gauntlets. She didn’t really care if she lost it. She had the information she needed, already. She wasn’t going to forget it.

“Oh.” Kdin’s grin slipped away, instantly. He slumped forward, hanging his head- just long enough that his hesitation was apparent. It wasn’t long, before he was back to pressing buttons, and pulling switches, and glancing at the multiple radars and feeds that were ingrained into the dashboard.

Lindsay could understand his momentary disappointment. They had all expected- or hoped, really- that the incident had to be some sort of misunderstanding. Maybe Geoff was being set up, or tricked, or some other circumstance that she couldn’t understand.

It had been horrifying to learn that that wasn’t the case. If he was in league with the Meta, there was no misunderstanding. He was evil, and the best that they could do was get him back to UNSC as peacefully as possible. If he had five AI, they had to hope that diplomacy was an option, because fighting him was not going to end well.

“How long until we should be in the air?” She asked.

“As soon as we want. They already fueled her,” He pointed to one of the screens, that reminded Lindsay of a fuel reader on a car. The mark was pointing towards the large F, and was as far away from the E, as was physically possible. “We could get going as soon as you say the word.”

“The word.”

“Fuck you.”

Despite the situation, Lindsay couldn’t help, but laugh. That was her job, after all. If she wanted to survive, then she had to find positivity in the worst places. Even if she had to find it during a life or death mission, she would still find it somewhere. She had to, or she would have gone insane on her first day in Bravo Team.

She kept laughing, until they were in the air. Eventually, Kdin joined in.

* * *

There was no booze on K-820. Apparently none of Charlie Team had managed to sneak it onto the planet, during their mission. That was another check on the list of “Why Charlie Team Sucks”.

It was a surprising fact. Geoff would have assumed that Colorado and Wisconsin, of all people, would have found a way to find beer, anywhere. The two of them had always been the ones to pull beer out of their asses, when they were stationed at the safe houses. It sucked that they apparently hadn’t kept up that habit, when they hadn’t been paired with Bravo Team.

He had searched the kitchens from top to bottom, in a desperate attempt to locate a single drop of alcohol. He had even turned to Ray, asking him for help, but the brown figure had refused. He had given some excuse about how alcohol disrupted his systems.

It was bullshit, and Geoff wanted to punch him for it. He would have, if Ray was a solid person, and not a hologram.

Geoff had been sober, since he had gone on his mission to find Ryan. He had desperately wanted to break that record. So far, the only records that he had broken since Project Freelancer’s fall had been how many times a grown man could possibly shit in his armor.

(It had been a lot)

Even Ryan had refused to help, citing the same reason that Ray had. Apparently the enhancement that he ran, the adrenaline, would glitch, if alcohol was introduced to his system. Ryan wouldn’t know how much to give, when alcohol was already disrupting his blood flow. He would, apparently, give too much to keep Geoff from maintaining stability. It would act like the drug that it actually was, and Geoff would be as high as a cocaine addict.

How horrible.

Gavin had attempted to help, but showing Geoff a 3D map, transmitted through a thin screen that Gavin clung to, that Geoff couldn’t understand, and wasn’t helping in any way. He appreciated the effort, though. At least Gavin was trying.

Jack had provided a good help, considering the many times that his shields had caught something that Geoff had dropped during his climb. Countless wires and metal frames would have been destroyed by the fall, without the blue figure’s help.

It wasn’t the first time that Jack had helped him during an alcohol raid. It probably wouldn’t be the last.

And if this wasn’t going to be his last raid, then he needed to make sure that Ryan and Ray would help him on all of his future scouts.

“Ray,” He whined, loudly and sadly. “Ray, I just need help this one time.”

“Drinking is bad for you, Geoff. Stay sober.”

“You’ve never had a drop of it! How would you know?”

“Have you ever met Nevada?” Ray defended. Joel had been the type to drink, whenever a bottle was placed in front of him. He didn’t just sip it, either. If there was a bottle of booze in front of him, then Joel could get himself plastered, just with that. He had a way of using things to their greatest possible effect.

There was no way to keep track of how many times Joel had been drugged, because of his inability to say no to a drink. It had been one of the most annoying qualities about the man. It was one of the few qualities that Ray didn’t miss.

“Michael?” Geoff asked, hopefully. If anyone was going to help him find beer, it was going to be Michael. He could tell that, from the moment he met the man. Michael would help him get plastered, in any way that he could.

“What do you want me to do? Supercharge the bevs?”

“Please do that.” Ryan said, with a light grin.

“Is no one going to help me?”

“Yeah, I’m just standing here doing nothing.” Jack said, forming another shield for emphasis. The blue shield caught on the low ceiling, and Jack recalled it, so that the entire building wouldn’t break open, and collapse on them.

“Yeah,” Geoff said, sarcastically. “Really big help, Jack.”

“Hey, I’m trying!”

“I gave you a map.” Gavin interrupted. He floated close to Geoff’s face, and waved the screen directly in front of his eyes.

“Yeah, the map that I can’t read, and that can’t locate anything. Sorry for not grovelling at your feet, Gavin. How will I make it up to you?” Geoff said, with as much sarcasm as he had directed at Jack.

“Michael, I think he’s being a right prick!” Gavin exclaimed, loudly.

“He’s not the only one.” Michael muttered. Gavin let out another shocked exclamation, that could only be described as an undefinable noise, if that could even be considered a description. Which, was what most of Gavin’s noises could be described as.

“Michael, why?”

“Micool, why?” Michael mocked, warping the other man’s accent, heavily.

“Michael, I thought we were friends.”

Geoff should probably stop their arguments, but he was too preoccupied with climbing up the cabinet. He was only a few inches from the ceiling, now. In a few moments, he was going to get sweet alcohol back in his veins. His dry streak would be over! He could drink, again! In just a few minutes, he could be drunker than Joel, on the best of days!

“You know, you could have sent one of us to look at that. We are holograms, you know.” Ryan said, as Geoff was celebrating being an inch away from the cabinet.

Geoff paused, and directed his gaze back to the red figure on the ground. He almost let go of the cabinet, in despair, and it took him a few moments of fumbling to regain his place. There was absolutely no fault in Ryan’s statement. He had just risked falling from the ceiling, when he had floating holograms who could reach the top within a second.

He really felt like an idiot.

“Ryan, no,” Ray said, without any trace of excitement. “Why didn’t you just let him go?”

Geoff sighed, and went back to climbing. He had already started. There was no point in stopping, now. He might as well finish what he started.

“Or just keep going. You know. Whatever.” Ryan muttered.

He finally reached the top, and wrapped his hand around the metal plating in the ceiling. He removed it, with a slight bit of effort. The armor helped, with that. There was something about UNSC armor that gave him strength that he wouldn’t have had, if he had been bare. He thanked people like Griffon for that, every day.

The plating opened outward, revealing a hidden cavern filled with more cans of booze than he knew what to do with. All of them were full, probably hidden away by Colorado and Wisconsin ages ago.

Below him, Gavin cheered. Next to him, Ryan and Ray sighed.

“The plan failed.” Ryan reported.

“Yeah, I know. We should have tried harder.” Ray responded.

“Wait, were you two conspiring against me?” Geoff asked, as he tucked the cans into the crook of his arm. It took way too much effort not to crush them. “Jack help me out here.”

A domed shield appeared directly under his feet. He let go of the room, and slipped down the structure. None of the bottles shattered, which was unexpected.

Ray declared “Yes” at exactly the same time that Ryan said “No.” They both glanced at each other for a few seconds, looking equally annoyed at each other, and the failed plan.

“We were planning to make sure you didn’t get up there,” Ray admitted. “Apparently, we weren’t convincing enough.”

“Not at all. You two suck.” Geoff popped open the cap of one of the cans with one hand, and used the other to take off his helmet.

“Can I log off, now?” Ray asked. Without waiting for a response, he shut down. Geoff glanced at Ryan, who stood watching him.

“You can too, if you want.” Geoff brought the can to his lips, and took the first sip of booze that he had had in years.

Ryan didn’t log off.

* * *

 

As Geoff stuck his face into the toilet, he started to realize why he had never drank with just Jack. As it turned out, AI turned out to be the worst drinking buddies in existence.

Sure, they knew exactly what levels his blood alcohol was, but they didn’t really understand how to tell that to him, when he was pouring alcohol through their systems, as well as his. He probably should have realized that, as well.

Most of them were riding out their suffering by shutting down. That way, they would be perfectly restored when they woke up. Surprisingly, one of them- one of the non-drinkers, actually, had decided to ride it out with him.

Ryan was glitching more than Geoff had ever seen. He was flickering in and out of existence, roughly. He had his eyes squeezed shut, as he tried to cope with whatever he had to be feeling. Every second, it seemed, he would disappear, and by the next he was back, looking even more haggard than before. Even his crown, which was usually plastered to his head, was on the ground, looking even more cracked and broken, than it usually did.

Geoff felt bad for the little guy. He hadn’t expected beer to affect him that much.

His red glow was getting to be brighter than Geoff had ever seen him. He would have expected it to get dimmer, since he was, apparently, losing control of his systems. He supposed, when AI were in pain, they would respond with an increase in brightness. There was nothing they could do, otherwise.

Geoff heaved, as he let out more of his rations into the toilet. The sound of his own excreting was starting to get to him. His head was pounding worse than it ever had, before. It was killing him, and it probably wasn’t helping Ryan, either.

“Sorry.” He said, between his gasps.

“I’m fine.” Ryan said, quickly. He stared at the wall, barely even processing Geoff’s statement.

“I’ll try to keep it to a decent level, next time.” He probably shouldn’t be talking. It was playing havoc against his pounding head.

“It’s fine. We’re fine. We’re all fine.” Ryan said, slipping into the same denial that he always seemed to do, whenever he was distressed. It was just like the morning before. Just like when they’d first confronted Ryan about his glitching. He ignored them, and denied it vehemently.

It was a trait that they would have to deal with, if they planned to stick together any longer. It was a trait that, hopefully, they could break him of.

“Wait,” Ryan cut in, urgently. “Can you hear that?”

Any hope of hearing whatever Ryan was was cut off, when Geoff let out another serving into the toilet bowl. This was going to kill him! He knew it! This was going to kill him, before any Recovery agent could even try!

At least, it wasn’t too bad a way to die.

When he finally finished spewing his stomach into the device, that could barely be considered a toilet, he directed his attention back to whatever Ryan was panicking about. Sure enough, he could hear footsteps. Loud, heavy footsteps, that echoed through the entire safehouse. The sounds of metal on metal. Footsteps of someone wearing armor.

“Get your,” The AI was cut off by another round of flickering. When he returned, he let out a pained sigh, and continued. “Get your gun, Geoff. And get Michael.”

He wasn’t in the mood to argue. He placed his helmet back on, and ordered the AI to log back in. It took a few seconds for them to respond, but eventually they appeared.

They all looked out of sorts- Ray especially. The brown figure looked like he was having even more difficulty dealing with the hangover than Geoff was. He was swaying in the air, looking ready to fall flat on his face, if they didn’t let him go back to sleep.

Geoff pushed himself onto his feet, and barely managed to stay on them. A burst of nausea settled in his stomach, and it took all of his self control not to kneel back in front of the toilet.

He walked forward, silently hating himself for not taking off his armor the night before. It was clunky and heavy and it took too much effort to do anything.

He had forgotten about this part of the night out. Had forgotten how much it sucked.

He walked out of the bathroom, and walked straight into a suit of discolored armor, with paint chipping off in multiple places. He stumbled back, and swallowed roughly, barely even noticing the rifle slipping out between his fingers.

Geoff had seen that shade of red, before. This was not going to be a warm welcome.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're nearing the end, guys. There should be only four more chapters, if I don't go crazy editing.
> 
> Hope you guys are enjoying!


	17. Even It's Own Agents!

Geoff could feel a burning cold originating at the back of his neck, that was starting to become far too familiar to him. He could feel it spreading through his veins, like some sort of virus. It brought along an unnerving restlessness- an energy that couldn’t be ignored. He had to run- he had to run- he had to run!

He pushed himself back on his feet, silently chastising himself to ignore the sudden adrenaline burst. He had to keep standing. He couldn’t just run away. He had to fight. There was an unauthorized threat, and he couldn’t just go crazy while it was watching.

“Geoff?” The woman in the red suit asked.

And god, Geoff hadn’t seen her in ages. She left on a mission days before the Mother of Invention had fallen. He hadn’t been allowed in her presence, since. The counselor had forbidden it, after Alpha Team had imploded on itself. Apparently Bravo Team seeing each other was an international security alert. Even if they had never shown a sign of treachery, before the fall, apparently, just being a part of Project Freelancer made them fugitive material. He had always hated that about Project Recovery. They had always been a bunch of assholes.

“Lindsay?” He could barely force the word out, past gritted teeth. He was aware that he was shaking. A violent trembling, that could barely even be hidden behind his armor. He was also aware that Lindsay that was the cause of it.

Ryan had drugged him again, hadn’t he?

“Lindsay?” Michael echoed, appearing in front of the Freelancer, with a wide grin on his face. He had almost forgotten that Michael had had the same separation as he had, but even more pronounced. They had been partners, before Michael was removed. They had been one of the closest pairs. Then, Freelancer had fallen, and Michael was at the bottom of a canyon.

Lindsay’s visor faced Michael for a few seconds. He could see her face, under the glass- could barely see the slightly furrowed eyebrows, the clenched jaw, and the eyes that kept darting away from, and then back to, the purple AI.

“Michael?” She asked, quietly.

“We just going to ask each others names, over and over? Cause I’m Gavin!” The green figure held out his hand, for her to shake. Lindsay didn’t take it.

“Ray’s here too.” Ray said. Lindsay’s gaze swung towards him, and that slightly-distressed look was back.

And really, Geoff should feel touched by this. He should be glad that they could all reunite. They were all old friends. It was nice to see each other again. He should be going to hug Lindsay.

But he was hungover, and he wanted to throw up, and he was slowly being drugged, by a psychopathic AI. All this was doing was hurting his head.

“Ray,” Lindsay said, slowly. “What happened? With Joel and,” Her voice cracked. “Geoff.”

Geoff had to hold himself back from mentioning that, yeah, he was there. He was standing right there. Hi. She probably had a reason for asking Ray, though. Lindsay had been his friend for a long time. She wouldn’t believe the UNSC, right?

“They removed me, and Geoff found me. Then Recovery decided ‘Fuck those guys’ and here we are now.” It was a fairly brief explanation, but it really was all that they knew. This was all still confusing to Geoff, and it must have been worse for the AI, who had even less of the story than he did.

“What happened to you?” Lindsay asked, obviously referring to the way that most of the AI were barely keeping themselves in the air. Jack stepped forward, the only calm one.

“Freelancer left them on Sidewinder. We found them, and rescued them,” Jack said. He sounded collected, unlike the rest of them. Alcohol probably didn’t affect him anymore. He must have gotten used to it, after so many years with Geoff. “We’re all a little,” He hesitated, as if searching for the word. “Off, because Geoff decided it was a good idea to get drunk while we were hiding from a militant organization.” His tone was pointed. An insult against Geoff’s stupid decision.

Admittedly, it probably had been a terrible idea, but Geoff hadn’t drank booze in years. He’d missed it. There was no way that he was going to just let it sit there, and tempt him, while he sat around doing nothing. He’d done enough of that, while searching for Ryan. It was peaceful to just get to chug from a can, again.

And, really, Jack could have said something if he thought that it was a bad idea. It was a little late to be pointing fingers.

“You got drunk,” Lindsay said. Geoff winced, at the annoyance in her tone. “You just told the Meta your location, and you decide to get drunk?”

“Hey,” Geoff defended. “It wasn’t me that talked to him! Blame Ryan!”

The AI, that was still flooding him with adrenaline, tensed. It wasn’t long before an red hand was pressed up against the human’s throat. Another burst shot into Geoff’s systems, and he almost collapsed, from the sheer force of it.

“You mean Rho?”

“No,” Ryan said. His voice was dangerously clipped. “He meant Ryan.”

Lindsay finally seemed to notice the red figure. She took a step back, in surprise. Geoff didn’t really know what was so shocking. It was just Ryan. Just ordinary old angry Ryan. It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.

“Geoff you do realize that-” Her statement was cut off, as Ryan shot her a death glare that Geoff didn’t even think he was capable of. It was worse than anything Geoff had seen, even while he was in the canyon. He wouldn’t be surprised if lazers shot out of his crown, and struck Lindsay in the face.

And the crown was the problem, wasn’t it? The red, the crown, and the weird kilt. The fact that this wasn’t the Ryan from Project Freelancer. This wasn’t Rho, anymore. She probably hadn’t been expecting that.

“I think he realizes just fine.” The red AI flickered, dangerously. His fingers dug deeper into Geoff’s neck, and red veins spread across his armor, as more adrenaline flooded in.

“I could fix that.” Lindsay said, to Geoff instead of the furious AI.

“No, you won’t, because absolutely nothing is wrong.” Ryan said, threateningly.

“What?” Geoff asked, ignoring Ryan’s comment.

“The glitching. It not good for an AI to glitch like that. It usually means that there’s something wrong with their backup. We might be able to fix that.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Michael said. “He gets defensive over the glitching.”

“Yeah, he’ll put you in a hole, if you’re not careful.” Ray warned.

“It’s what I did to Edgar.” Ryan said. He kept his eyes trained on Lindsay, refusing to look away. His hand, he kept on Geoff’s neck, still sending bursts of adrenaline into his systems. Geoff was worried that the adrenaline would turn to fire, soon.

It was starting to become more than uncomfortable. He had dealt with adrenaline more times in his life than he probably should have, but never like this. Ordinary adrenaline was weaker. More diluted and less artificial. Less powerful.

“Edgar? You mean Georgia? What’d you do to him?” Lindsay asked, quickly. Geoff could understand her curiosity. It was one of the last mysteries of Project Freelancer. He had wanted to know it, himself, for a long time. Now, he wished that he had never found that information. He had never wanted to see an old acquaintance slowly rotting away, in a suit that was specifically designed to ensure that that wouldn’t happen.

He also wished that he could get that smell out of his head.

“Check sidewinder. Jump off a cliff. You’ll find him at the bottom.”

“As you can tell, Ryan may not be,” Geoff paused, considering his words for a few seconds. He didn’t want to piss of Ryan any more than he already had. Especially when he was still being drugged by the AI. “Acting like he used to.”

“Fuck you.” The red figure said, directing his glare at Geoff, now.

“I can tell. He doesn’t look like it, either,” Lindsay said. “What’s with the crown?”

Ryan reached up with his free hand, and grabbed hold of the cracked piece of headwear. He took it off of his head, and weighed it in his hand. It didn’t roll off of his palm, like it should have. Instead, it remained firmly planted on his hand.

“It’s a symbol,” He explained, as he spun it around his finger. “It means I’m better than you.”

“Why is it cracked?”

“A cracked crown usually shows how I got a hold of it.”

“Ryan.” Geoff warned. The red figure smirked, and threw the crown back on its place on his head. It landed perfectly in the same spot as it had been before.

It was one of the subtle reminders that these people were not real. They were just holograms, that could distort reality exactly as they want. They could spin a crown, without dropping it, or become a jester, or simply change their appearance entirely.

He sometimes forgot that they were just numbers. They acted like people. They had emotions, and hopes, and legitimate reactions to things. It was easy to forget that they were just computer algorithms, designed to appear to be human. He was thankful for that.

“What? I’m just answering her question!” Ryan defended, allowing a small grin to form on his face. It slipped away the second that he finished his sentence. “Besides, did you forget who sent her? She deserves to be threatened.”

To be quite honest, he had forgotten. He hadn’t thought about how she had gotten there. How she was still allied with Recovery, even while he was on the run. He hadn’t realized that they had probably sent her. He had been too sick- too annoyed- too pleased to see her.

“Damn, Ryan’s got the vinegar. Christ.” Michael muttered.

“Yeah, we probably should get down to business, huh?” Lindsay said. She shifted her arm towards her back. Geoff noticed.

He twitched, a subtle change due to the trembling that he was already going through. He wanted to grab her wrist. See what she was going for. He had to know. He had to move, and he had to grab it.

“That would probably be a good idea.” Jack said. He had his arms splayed out in front of him, ready to activate the shields at a moments notice. He glanced at Geoff, and nodded his head. It was a silent promise that the blue AI would keep them safe.

“Recovery just wants to bring you in, Geoff. We don’t have to kill you or anything. All you have to do is come with us. We’ll get rid of the AI, and you’ll get an honorary discharge. No arrest or anything, Geoff. They’ll let you put all of this behind you.” The Recovery agent explained.

“And what would happen to us?” Gavin asked.

“Most of you guys will get stored away, until humanity needs you again.”

“Dude, we’re batman!” Michael exclaimed, before lowering his voice to suit the superhero’s. “We’re the heroes this city deserves, but not the ones it needs right now.”

Geoff didn’t even bother to ask how he knew what that was. He could see the other AI’s confused glances at Michael. If they didn’t understand the reference, he shouldn’t either. Still, it wasn’t important, right now.

“Most of them?” He asked, instead.

Lindsay lifted her arm against the back of her neck. She was the picture of awkwardness, as she thought of how to respond to that.

“If Rho-”

“Ryan.”

“If Rho really did kill Georgia, I don’t think they’re going to let him get away with that. Especially in his state.” She sounded unsure. He really wished that he could see her face.

“In his state?” Gavin asked.

“I’ll explain it if you come with me. Kdin’s already got the ship warmed up. All you’d have to do is come with. We’d be home in about a day.”

“She’s lying,” Ryan whispered. His holographic fingers dug in, and probably would have torn through Geoff’s skin if he was actually solid. “She’s going to kill us both.”

Geoff had spent a lot of time around the five AI currently floating in front of his head. He had been stuck at the bottom of a canyon with them for weeks. He had spent a few too many days listening to Gavin telling him “You get $100,000, but…”. He had listened to Ray brag about his tetris score. Had heard Michael yell at Gavin on a daily basis. He had spent weeks with them. He had had even longer with Jack.

If he couldn’t tell that Ryan wasn’t sounding like Ryan, then he had a problem.

He didn’t have any time to think about the AI’s newfound paranoia, as Lindsay took a step closer to him. She wasn’t looking at him.

“Griffon wants you to come back, too.”

He’d never understand how he realized it, but it didn’t take long. Ryan was right. That was a lie. There was something in her tone- something in her step- that clearly read that out. Lindsay was lying.

And if she was lying about that, then she could have been lying about everything.

“No thanks. We’re good to just stay here, if you don’t mind.” Geoff said.

Lindsay sighed, loudly. She pulled her arm away from her back, finally revealing the pair of handcuffs in her grip. Geoff didn’t know how he missed that, before.

“Try not to make this too hard on us, Geoff. I am trying to help you here.” She said, as she clicked the pair of cuffs open.

“Geoff,” Jack called out. He formed a shield around his host, holding Lindsay back from him. “I’m going to drop this. Grab your gun and run.”

The adrenaline was probably getting to his head at that point, because all he did was nod, and prep himself for the run. He held out his hand, ready to grab the rifle as he went.

The shield dropped, and Geoff ran. He went faster than should have been possible for a drunk with a hangover. He ran straight past Lindsay, grabbing a hold of the rifle without a moment’s hesitation. The second that his fingers came into contact with it, he was gone.

“Gavin, bring up the map!” The green figure nodded, and did as commanded. “Ray, I need the location of Lindsay’s ship. Jack and Ryan, keep doing what you’re doing. Michael-” The purple AI finally turned his head away from Lindsay, and set his anger on Geoff. “Charge the rifle, in case she retaliates.”

“No.” Michael said. He floated back, as far away from Geoff as he could manage. He had his arms crossed, and his gun locked against his back. He had no urge to help the man who had just ordered him to shoot his best friend. That wasn’t going to happen.

“Michael, just do it!” Geoff ordered.

“No!” The AI glared at him for a few seconds, before shutting down entirely.

Michael had just shut down in the midst of a mission. AI weren’t supposed to be able to do that. They were active, until their host ordered otherwise. There was no way that Michael should have been able to log off.

Yet, somehow, he did.

“Take a right,” Ray told him, forcing him away from his thoughts of the rebellious AI. “Run for, like, 5000 feet and you should be there. They parked a little closer than we did.”

“That’s like a mile!” He exclaimed. He did not want to run a mile, in heavy armor. That wasn’t going to work. Geoff hadn’t done any sort of strenuous training for ages. Running was not something that he particularly enjoyed on a normal day. When he was hungover and hadn’t trained in years? It wasn’t going to be fun.

“That’s almost exactly a mile.” Ryan said.

Geoff ignored the comment, in favor of focusing on the run. Even if he didn’t have a distraction, he probably would have ignored him, anyway. Ryan had a habit of being an asshole.

* * *

 

He reached the ship within seven minutes of escaping the former Freelancer. It had been a difficult run, that probably should have ended in an imploded heart, but he had made it. He had run as quickly as he possibly could, desperate to get away from someone that he had once considered to be his friend.

Someone who was much fitter than him, and who had been known to run a mile in six minutes. Geoff was officially screwed.

The ship was small, and looked shockingly similar to the one that he had stolen. Apparently the UNSC didn’t put much effort into designing their ships. Lazy bastards.

The latch was already open, offering an instant way inside the vehicle. He ran towards it immediately, not even minding the shield that Jack was throwing up in front of him. In an ordinary circumstance, he would have been offended by that. Now, it was probably the best option.

How many times had he thought that statement, since he had found the AI?  How many times had he considered how strange the situation was, but had never done anything about it? It was starting to become ridiculous.

Still, he could think about that later on, when he wasn’t sneaking into a military vehicle, in an effort to steal it and continue his life on the streets.

His life was seriously becoming ridiculous.

His gun was ready to fire at any moment. He walked into the ship, with his finger pressed against the trigger, and the scope aimed towards the door.

He hadn't even noticed the swish to his left, as he walked in. Hadn't noticed the sudden rise in temperature, or the electric current running through the air. His footsteps had been too loud, and his armor too protective.

It had been Jack that had saved him from the blade rushing towards his head. The AI had noticed a second before it came into contact with his skin- before his brain could be turned into stir fry. The shield moved too quickly for his enemy to respond to.

He swung around, and aimed the rifle. A black suit of armor, riddled with random linings of purple, stood in his way. The man held a sword at his side, that looked too blue to be real. Bolts, not unlike Michael's, danced across the edges of the man's sword, as he crept closer to Geoff.

"Hey, Geoff." Kdin greeted, lifting his sword like a wave. He sounded genuinely welcoming, like he wasn’t trying to turn Geoff into a kabob.

"Kdin, I'm warning you now, buddy. Stand down." Geoff said. The other Freelancer paused, apparently considering the idea.

"You know, I would, but the economy's been really bad for the past couple of years, and I think letting the enemy kill me and my ally would result in a really bad pay dock. So I, regretfully, have to turn down your offer."

A brown scope formed on his visor, directly in front of the man's crotch. Ray floated into his vision, and grinned. His hint was obvious. Ray wanted him to hit Kdin in the dick.

It wasn’t such an odd request. After all, Geoff hadn’t been nicknamed “Dick Punch” for nothing. It was probably one of the sanest requests that any of the AI had had, since Recovery had sent him to pick them up. At least this one had a basis.

He followed Ray’s request without hesitation. His fist, still plated with pounds of metal, crashed into Kdin’s crotch, without any semblance of remorse. The man let out a small wail, the likes of which Geoff had never heard a grown man utter, before he was kneeling on the floor, with his hands covering his injured dick. He sounded like he was trying to scream, but nothing was coming out, due to both shock and pain.

Gavin winced, and dropped his hand to his own nether region. Geoff had no idea what would compel him to do that. He was an AI. He should have been incapable of even understanding pain.

Yet, with the way that Kdin was writhing, it was probably a pain that transcended knowledge.

Years before, Geoff had heard a story about a man who had cut off his own dick, rode a bike to the hospital, and then had been forced to ride back home, and back to the hospital, to retrieve his injured penis. The man had returned only to discover that it had been too late to restore. Kdin sounded like he was in worse pain than that.

Geoff stared at his injured friend, for a few moments, wincing in sympathy. He had never wanted to subject anyone to those levels of pain. he might as well mourn the man’s suffering.

“Good one.” Ray said, with his usual monotonous voice. He sounded like he was praising Geoff for a good joke.

He could hear Ryan and, even, Michael, who had apparently decided to return to the fight, in the background, both letting out wild bursts of laughter. Jack, however, was just muttering “God, Geoff”, and staring at the injured Freelancer.

As it had turned out, the amount of time that they had spent watching Kdin’s suffering had turned out to be more of a hindrance to them, than to him. Geoff had paused a little too long, and it had given a certain red armored soldier a chance to catch up with them.

She stood inside the ship, aiming her gun at Geoff’s skull. She completely ignored her incapacitated partner, instead favoring her focus on the enemy. It was one of the qualities that had made her such a valuable soldier to Project Freelancer. She had always cared more about her enemies than her friends, and it showed when she fought.

Geoff didn’t know how she had snuck onto the ship, without his noticing. Maybe Ryan and Michael had been laughing too loud. Maybe Ray had distracted him, with his compliment. Maybe Jack’s disappointment had driven him away from focus for slightly too long.

“Stand down, or I will shoot.” Lindsay said. Her voice was steady and without any hint of hesitation.

Geoff knew from experience that she wasn’t lying. He had seen it countless times on the field, while she was in battle. Lindsay was not the type to threaten without the intention to go through with it.

“Me too.” Geoff said. He wasn’t the type to lie, either.

Information leaked into his head, within the next second. Algorithms, predicting exactly what movements the soldier would choose next, with the exact methods of how to counter them. Lindsay would shoot slightly to his left, so that when he dodged, he would still take the shot where she had intended to go. So, if he had to dodge, he needed to move right.

He dived to the right, barely avoiding the bullet that grazed the side of his armor. He could barely even hear the gun firing, too driven by the adrenaline that Ryan continued to drug him with.

Jack pulled up a shield, placing it between them and Lindsay. That would give them a few seconds to regroup, before she could make it over to them. They needed to make those few seconds count.

Kdin was climbing to his feet, preparing to join the fight. He had found his sword’s base, and was already ready to flick it into existence. That would not end with good results. Geoff was good, but he wasn’t good enough to face two Freelancers at once. He wasn’t Tex.

He kicked at Kdin’s side, as viciously as he could. The poor man was sent flying from the ship, straight out of the open hatch. He landed on the ground, with a new injury in his side, to add to the one by his crotch.

Gavin didn’t even need an order, before he had shut the door to the ship. That was another advantage to the AIs. They were extraordinarily good at hacking into technology. Such as overriding the automatic doors to the ship, for example.

There was no getting in and no getting out, this time.

Michael floated away from the violence, just outside the field of Jack’s shield. It was understandable that he didn’t want to fight. They were going against his closest friend, after all. It had to hurt to do that.

But Geoff needed him to help and the AI wasn’t making it easy to ask.

He was going to have to work without him. He could have Ray provide a scope for his rifle, easily. The AI would probably be more than happy to do it. Ray hadn’t been getting much action, lately.

Geoff could use every bit of enhancement that he could muster from them. He needed them, or he wasn’t going to win that fight. He had been unable to beat Lindsay, when they had been of equal training levels. Now, without having had any training for the past few years, he would get destroyed on his own.

But he couldn’t do that, could he? How could he actually hurt someone that he had trusted? He couldn’t just ruin that, now.

“Geoff, I swear to god." Lindsay warned.

He glanced at Ryan, who had formed a projective grenade launcher in his hands. He had his finger pressed against the trigger. While it didn’t look threatening (the kilt ruined the effect), and the gun couldn’t hurt her, it did show just how annoyed the AI was.

Lindsay, on the other hand, looked completely calm. While she did have one hand on her gun, she had her other held up, in a symbol of peace.

“Jack,” Geoff said. The blue figure twitched at the mention of his name. “Get this thing going. Find some place to go. Don’t tell me where.”

“Geoff, don’t you fucking dare.”

“Sorry, Jersey.” Geoff said. He swung his fist, and cracked it against her jaw.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, Kdin.


	18. Drugs Are Bad, Kids

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can explain! I didn't have internet today (Sorry), but it's up! Yay! Now you can finally immerse yourself in this shit! *Confetti*

She didn’t open her eyes. Her head was aching, the latch on her arm was swinging, and there was a groan, that was desperately trying to escape her lips. She could practically hear the throbbing in her head, beating at too slow a pace for her to entirely be safe.

It picked up again, when she remembered where she was.

Geoff, still clad in his green armor, was sitting in the chair with his head lolled back, and his helmet was half off his head, and- Wait. Was he sleeping?

What kind of an idiot would fall asleep with an enemy sitting ten feet away from him?

“All I’m saying is that we shouldn’t be going anywhere that the Meta has been. I don’t think it’ll end well with Ryan.” One of Geoff’s AI said, quietly. It was the blue one (Pi?), the one that he had ordered to fly the plane

The blue AI- and his name was just on the edge of her tongue- stood by the green figure, that Lindsay had never seen before, and Ray. Ray, contrary to the green AI, didn’t look like he gave half a shit about the conversation. Michael and Rho were nowhere to be seen.

“Ryan can handle himself. It’s not like he’ll pull Sigma out of his ass. We’ll be fine, Jack.” Ray told the blue one- Jack. He placed a brown marker onto their map, and traced it back to their current position. That was interesting. She hadn’t known that AI could act as GPS.

“Is that why he’s glitching like all hell, just because we mentioned the name ‘Maine’?” Jack argued- a pretty solid argument. Glitching meant horrible things for AI. It meant corruption, or data loss, or even rampancy. An AI going rampant was usually grounds for an instant kill order.

She could remember Ryan’s glitching, seemingly at random. It was not a good sign, and it didn’t bode well for their futures, if Ryan had any control over Geoff. An unstable AI, keeping her captive, wasn’t good, at all.

“No, he’s glitching like all hell, because he always does. Not because of the Meta.” Ray responded. It was a valid point, though it didn’t cancel out Jack’s. Glitching was a cause for concern- no matter the reason.

“Geoff said that he’s been talking to Sigma,” Jack said. Lindsay tensed, and instantly relaxed. They thought that she was asleep. She had the advantage here. She wasn’t going to give that up just yet. “It could be because of that.”

“Maybe.” Ray murmured. He obviously didn’t believe it.

Their conversation was cut off, as Ryan materialized in front of Lindsay, faster than she could process. The only warning off his appearance was a small red explosion of light, that had settled as quickly as it had begun. He had his arms crossed, tightly, over his chest. His expression was clearly a mix of annoyance and confusion- eyebrows furrowed, lips set in a thin line, but with the odd addition of a tilted head.

“How long?” The red figure asked, to the surrounding AI. There wasn’t any context to the statement, but the other figures seemed to pick up on his question, instantly.

“Two minutes, fourteen seconds,” The green AI responded, not even looking up from his map. “You were gone for double last time’s time.”

“I know, Gavin,” Ryan said, dryly. “I can do math- thank you.”

Gavin (and, at least, she knew his name, now) shrugged, noncommittally. He shut down the map that he was staring at, and turned to face the other AI. His screen flickered out of existence the moment that he stopped touching it.

“What are you going to do about it? The glitching.”

“Nothing. I feel fine.”

“That’s gonna be on his gravestone. ‘He felt fine.’” Michael said, flickering into existence, beside Ryan. His appearance wasn’t half as noticeable as Ryan’s. Rather than the explosion that seemed to accompany Ryan’s reappearances, Michael was just there. There was no warning, and no hesitation. One second he wasn’t there, and the next he was.

“Yeah, you probably need a mechanic.” Ray agreed.

“I don’t. It’ll wear off. I’m fine.” Ryan said, shaking his head, roughly.

“Sure, it will,” Michael rolled his eyes. “It’s not like it’s getting worse or anything. But, nah. He’s fine.”

Lindsay had forgotten about how Michael’s patented sarcasm. She had remembered his violent tendencies, and his random fits of anger, but she had forgotten about his sense of humor. It was nice to hear it again, after so many years without it. She hadn’t even realized how much she missed it.

“Guys, do you think we should wake up Geoff?”

“Don’t be a pleb, Ray.” Gavin said, dismissively.

“But Lindsay-” The brown figure tried, before instantly being cut off by Michael.

“We know. We’re not idiots, Ray,” Michael’s voice raised, slightly. “We happen to be incredibly complex computer programs, who can sense minimal changes in heartbeat, without actual physical touch. This genius thinks she can override that, by staying really still. Genius, Lindsay.”

So they knew that she was conscious. She couldn’t tell if that was a good thing, or a bad thing. If Michael was still being sarcastic, then it was probably good. If that was just because of his irritation, then that was really bad.

“Should we do something?”

“She’s been awake for a few minutes, and she hasn’t done anything. There’s only a 13% chance that she’ll try anything, now that she knows that she can’t sneak up on us.” Ryan said, monotonously. He didn’t even look at her, as he made his assessment.

In fact, none of them had looked at her since she had woken up. When had they even realized that she was conscious?

“13’s a lot, Ryan!” Gavin exclaimed. Ryan didn’t get a chance to respond, before he exploded. Red light flickered, brightly, for a split second, before there was nothing, and the AI was no longer standing beside Michael.

Apparently, it really was random.

Gavin sighed, and manipulated his map into a miniature tablet, that he pulled out of thin air (because of course he did). On the screen was a set of numbers, already counting up from zero. He had the time down to the nanosecond. It was a little excessive.

“So Michael won the last one, and I’m betting two minutes, 18 seconds. Any takers?” Ray offered.

“Two minutes, 20.” The blue one, Jack, said.

“Two, four seconds.” Michael said. Ray whistled.

“Little low there, Michael.” Jack said, sounding more surprised than any of the other AI looked. Michael just shrugged, and floated a little closer to Gavin.

“Two minutes, 17.” The green AI said. The tablet split in two, and he let the one with the countdown float in front of him, and this time, the screen simply floated directly beside his face, instead of disappearing. On the second screen, he jotted down their bets, as quickly as he could.

“Lindsay?” Michael asked, quietly. He sounded a little too reserved.  “You going to bet?”

There was no point in pretending to be asleep, anymore. Every single one of them knew that she was active. She really had no reason to defend, after all. Her eyes had been open for the past ten minutes. She might as well stop faking it. She pushed herself up, and onto her feet, in one smooth movement, barely even noticing it. Somewhere along the line, the misplaced latch clicked back shut. She didn’t notice that, either.

She didn’t notice the fact that the hard metal piece- a small flash drive- that the latch had contained was gone.

“What are we betting on?”

“How long Ryan will be glitching,” Gavin answered for the purple AI. “We’re judging it based off of his previous times. Last time was two minutes, 14. I’d give you the other times, but he’ll be back before I can.”

“How long have you guys been doing this?” She asked.

“Since we noticed it. So, a couple of hours, now. Since Geoff fell asleep. The times have been increasing, steadily. Don’t know why Michael’s pulling two minutes and four seconds out of his arse, though.”

“I’m sorry for my faith that it’ll decline.” Michael rolled his eyes, again.

“So, Jersey,” Ray said. Admittedly, she felt more comfortable with the codename. “Are you going to bet, or what?”

These AI were strange to talk to. They were too animated- too excited. They talked too naturally, with too much realism. It felt as if she was speaking with humans, rather than computer programs. She blamed it on Michael corrupting them. The purple AI had always managed to act too human.

It was just an illusion, though. The illusion of humanity, brought on by the way that they were created. They weren’t actually real- just realistic.

But if they were realistic, then they would respond realistically to her reactions.

“I’ll go with Michael.” She answered. It was a gesture of peace, more than a legitimate bet. Michael didn’t look like he appreciated it. He turned away from her, to focus on his companions more.

“Aw, Michael and Linds-” Whatever statement Gavin was trying to make was cut off by the glare that Michael sent him, and the clenched fists of the purple AI.

The group fell into an awkward silence, after that. Michael’s anger apparently served as a great deterrent of conversation.

The awkwardness cut away, when Ryan sparked back into existence, in the same spot that he had disappeared from. He looked even more disheveled than before. His crown was practically hanging off of his head, and it probably would have fallen if he wasn’t a hologram. His form was flickering, in different places. Like his arm was disappearing, while his head and torso stayed in place. It was unnerving to see.

“Two minutes, 18 seconds! Ray wins!” Ray exclaimed, throwing his arms up in his celebration.

“Fuck you.” Ryan muttered, his voice slightly hoarse.

Lindsay would really like to study what caused that. She hadn’t thought that a glitch could actually cause physical symptoms for an AI. This was going to be interesting to observe.

“How’s the decline, Michael? Faith keep you well?” Gavin asked smugly.

There was no hesitation for Michael’s next move. His rifle was in his hand within a second, and the barrel was aimed at Gavin’s foot the next. He pulled the trigger, without remorse. The projected bullet crashed into Gavin’s leg.

“Bloody sh- shoe! Bloody shoe!” Gavin exclaimed. He ducked down, to grab a hold of the injured limb. Apparently AI could injure other AI. That was new information.

“Yeah, you should have a bloody shoe, after that.” Geoff’s original AI said. He didn’t even bother to hold back his laughter at his own joke.

“When are you going to learn not to piss off Michael?" Ray said to the injured AI. None of them showed any urge to help him. That was probably because they would get shot, if they tried.

"He bloody shot me! Michael, why?"

"Because you're an asshole," Michael said. "Now, shut the hell up before I shoot the other one."

"Michael, no!" The exclamation only ended with Michael aiming his gun towards Gavin uninjured foot. The green figure shrieked, and ducked away from the assault rifle.

“Yeah, just run away like a little bitch.” Michael told him. He lowered the rifle, aiming it at the floor, instead of at Gavin. His finger was still on the trigger, but at least he would actually have to move to fire. That was, at least, slightly safer.

“Don’t shoot me, I’m good!” Gavin promised, sounding slightly panicked.

“Don’t shoot me,” Michael repeated, slowly, humor obvious in his tone. “I’m good.”

Michael waved his hand, and the rifle disappeared. It reformed back on his back, strapped to the armor plating on his chest. It still looked charged, with purple bolts of lightning dancing across its surface.

“Yeah, that’s right. You better give up!” The green AI retorted, flailing his fists to add to the effect.

“Gavin, just shut the fuck up.”

They really were acting like humans, Lindsay realized. They were interacted exactly like she would with her friends. They were joking and fighting and threatening and just being genuinely alive.

Was it only Ryan that was glitching? Because she felt like he couldn’t be the only one.

Her mind flickered back to Maine, and the days when Sigma had floated next to him to talk about his theories. Strange theories of rampancy, and humanity in bots, and equality with mecs. She had always found the stories to be just that- stories. His ideas were illogical- based on more hope than reason. There was nothing backing his ideas.

If these five were the backings, then she needed to study these AI more.

Or maybe she was just seeing humanity in machines, again. She only ever dealt with machines, lately. It was understandable for her to mix them up, or look for life in the lifeless, when she had spent so long without the lively.

“How long has Geoff had you guys?” She asked. Gavin and Michael looked surprised by the sudden directional change of the conversation.

“A month by now. Ryan had us in a canyon for a couple weeks.” Jack answered, quietly. He had his head turned away from her, refusing to look at her. She didn’t know why. They had been friends before. She had liked to think that that hadn’t changed.

Then again, she had just attacked them. She had just attempted to kidnap them, so she could decommission one of their friends. It was understandable that he wouldn’t exactly want to rekindle their relationship, after everything that had happened.

“I still stand by my actions.” Ryan announced. “In fact, it-”

Whatever he was meaning to say went unsaid, as he flickered away into nothingness, with the explosion to follow him. That seemed to be a common occurrence for him.

“Two minutes, 20.” Lindsay said, as soon as the red figure had left. She had been beyond wrong last time. She could suck up to Michael later. For now, she wanted to win.

* * *

 

“You didn’t even leave the ship!” If Kdin wasn’t already furious, he would probably be laughing at the expression on Jeremy's face. Instead he just locked his eyes onto the floor, and prepared himself for the coming onslaught of insults.

“That was pretty stupid.” Mat agreed. Kdin really wished that he could see the other man, because he would really like to punch him. His AI was being annoying enough. He didn’t need to dig it in any further.

“We’re moving back out in an hour,” Kdin said, ignoring the previous insults. He could be chastised for his stupidity later, when Lindsay wasn’t a hostage to the Meta 2.0. For now, they had to find Geoff, and he wasn’t going to stop until they did. “Jeremy, just try to track them down.”

“What’s in it for me?” Jeremy asked, with his trademarked grin splayed across his face. Kdin was really learning to hate that smile. It never meant good things.

“I won’t shut you down.” Matt offered, seriously. He was probably the worst possible host for a manipulative AI. The only response that he ever had always seemed to be to kiss up to Jeremy even more. Even that was just offering him a nap. He wasn’t teaching the yellow figure anything. Matt was too laid back with him.

“Or here’s an option. If I track them, I get to install the invisibility in Kdin.” Jeremy offered. Kdin shook his head.

“Or, I can just call command and-” Kdin started, but was quickly cut off by the AI.

“That’s not necessary,” He said it a little too quickly. “I’m already tracking Lindsay’s armor, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find them. Right now they’ve just crossed the border into Milky Way, so we’re only a few hours behind. I think I can figure out where they’re heading, but Pi’s a better navigator than I am. They should get there a few days before we do, so we have to move pretty fast.”

Kdin didn’t really understand that argument (they were computers. How could one be better at navigating than another?), but he accepted it, readily. He had learned that skill a long time ago. How to accept things even if he couldn’t understand it. It had been how he had coped with the idea of AI in the first place.

“Matt, I’ll get the ship prepped. Try to get Jeremy to be a little less of an asshole, please.”

“I don’t know if I can do that.” If that wasn’t the truth, then nothing was.

* * *

 

Waking up had always been a difficulty for Geoff Ramsey. It usually took him over a half an hour to even begin to open his eyes. On one notable occasion, he had missed a three hour long lecture, because he had refused to get up. That had been one of the reasons that he had joined the military, instead of pursuing a college education. That, and the fact that there was a mandatory draft.

His sleeping habits had never served as a problem for him before. He had always (usually) been able to wait to wake up. Besides, even if he had missed multiple AI training seminars, had it even mattered in the end? He had been allowed possession of Jack, anyway. He had even managed to bear five different AI. He had met their expectations and surpassed them, and ran off with them. Anyone who complained could suck his dick.

Unlike his usual situation, he woke up easily. Within a second between the end of his dream and the beginnings of awareness, he was fully awake. There was no hesitation. No residual effects of sleep.

He was fully awake, and that was weird.

“Geoff’s up.” Ryan announced to the other AI. The red figure was clinging onto the neck of his armor, and red streaks laced across the green plating. Ryan was drugging him, again.

No wonder he had woken up so easily.

“Is this healthy- how much you drug me?” He exclaimed, as he pushed himself away from the AI.

“Probably not, but I figure you’re not going to live very long anyway, so any long term effects are irrelevant.” The morbid statement was said with a shrug. At least it showed how much the rogue AI actually cared about him.

“You’ve calculated how long I’m going to live?” Geoff exclaimed. He honestly wasn’t surprised. Ryan seemed like the type of person who would do something like that. Even when he hadn’t been completely crazy, he had liked to look into things that would probably be better unknown. The Clouds incident proved that well enough. Geoff had always pitied Georgia for being subjected to that on a daily basis. Now, he was stuck with it.

“Down to the minute.” Ryan promised, with a grin.

“Geoff, Ryan’s being creepy again!” Gavin drawled. Geoff was tempted to tell Gavin that, yes, he knows that. He just listened to that. Ryan had been directing the statement at him. It was his next statement, however, that actually drew Geoff’s attention. “And he’s been threatening Lindsay since she woke up!” That’s right!

Lindsay was on the ship! Lindsay was right behind him, still locked in her armor. With all of the weapons needed to put a bullet into Geoff’s brain.

Ryan really needed to stop drugging him, because whenever it wore off, he ended up asleep. Sleeping with an enemy in the room was not usually a good thing. Especially when he hadn’t taken her suit, yet.

“Lindsay’s awake?” He asked, urgently- panicked.

A red suit of armor stepped into his line of vision. She had her hands at her side and she wasn’t holding any of her guns. She just grinned at Geoff, from behind the glass of her helmet, and waved.

“Hi, Geoff. It’s been a while.” She greeted, as if nothing had changed between them. It was the first genuine greeting that he had heard since before Project Freelancer had fallen. He wasn’t comfortable with it.

“Has, hasn’t it? Kind of wonder if it was for a reason.”

“No one’s asking you, Ryan.” Geoff chastised.

Ryan clenched his fists, and took a step towards him. Before he could get anywhere near Geoff, he flickered. The first telltale sign of an oncoming glitch. He was barely able to let out a low “Fuck” before he had disappeared, with an explosion and a sigh.

Lindsay’s shoulders slumped forward, relieved. Her grin grew a little wider. Geoff couldn’t help, but wonder what Ryan had said to her to get her to be so uncomfortable around him.

“We’ve got three minutes.” Ray announced. Gavin grinned at him, and tapped randomly on his hologram. His map quickly morphed into the face of a digital clock. The time was already at 02:55, and counting down, quickly.

“We’ve got to talk about this quick, Geoff. Something’s wrong with Ryan, and I’m willing to help fix it.” Lindsay said, rushing out the words. Geoff already knew that. Ryan was obviously damaged in some way- the glitches were telltale enough, and there were a thousand other reasons, too- but if Recovery couldn’t fix it, how could Lindsay? She wasn’t a mechanic. She should have no idea how to do anything related to the AI.

How had she even known that something was wrong with Ryan? The glitching wasn’t that bad. He hadn’t been complaining about it, at all. It had been the exact opposite, actually. He’d been so flippant about it, that Geoff kept putting off the issue, until it stopped mattering, at all.

“How?” He asked.

The other AI weren’t reacting at all. They looked like they had already gone over this with Lindsay. How long had she been awake, before Ryan decided to drug him?

“It’s hard to explain, but I can- I can rewire him. I think I might know what’s wrong with him. I just need to see.”

That sounded more foreboding than it should. He didn’t want to. The only way to rewire an AI was to do it through their backup. He didn’t really want a Recovery Agent getting anywhere near one of their backups.

“No.”

“Geoff-”

“I’m not giving you anything.” He said, with finality. Lindsay didn’t seem to care.

“Ryan’s hurt, and it’s only going to get worse. I just need to see why. Just let me look at it, for christ’s sake,” She said. “You could talk to the other AI. They see it, too.”

There was a chorus of affirmation from the four remaining figures floating around the room. Ray was the only one who seemed hesitant to admit it, but Ray seemed hesitant about everything. It wasn’t exactly a shock for him to be quiet.

What had happened while Geoff was asleep?

“What’s wrong with him?”

“I just need to see to be sure. I don’t want to worry you, if it’s not what I think it is.” As if that, in itself, didn’t worry him, enough.

Geoff genuinely didn’t know what to do. The others seemed fine with it, and they wouldn’t put another AI in danger for no reason. It would have to matter- more than anything else- for them to trust another Recovery agent, after the amount of suffering that all of them, save for Jack, had been through because of Recovery.

Geoff trusted their judgement, he really did. He had just risked his life for them. It would be pointless, if he didn’t trust them when it mattered.

“I swear, if you hurt him-”

“You can be the first to put a bullet in my brain for it.” Lindsay promised. She stuck out her hand, impatiently.

Geoff reached for his neck, and quickly undid the latch attaching his helmet to the rest of his armor. He wanted to get this over with, as quickly as he could. He wanted to get Ryan safely back into his head as soon as he could. Before the AI returned, preferably. He didn’t want him suffering anymore.

He uninstalled the backup, with care. It let out a small sizzling noise, when he removed it. The glowing red stripes running through the backup seemed to be covering more space inside of it. While he's barely noticed them before, they were completely controlling every inch of Ryan's backup. Had they always been that pronounced?

He dropped it into his palm, and held it out to Lindsay. She grabbed it, with the same amount of care as he had. At least she understood how fragile they were. She had taken care of Michael for years, after all. It would be strange if she didn’t know how to care for his backup.

Lindsay stared at the backup for a few seconds, studying it intently. She clenched her fist around it, and let out a sigh. She unclenched it, and the device in her palm hadn’t changed at all.

If she hadn’t been holding Ryan’s backup, he would have punched her, again. How dare she risk Ryan’s life like that? She knew how dangerous that was! Clenching an armored fist around a small metal chip! If it had cracked even slightly, Ryan would be dead! He didn’t want that! Couldn’t allow her to do that!

When had he decided that? He definitely hadn’t cared about the red bastard before. He had liked him before the canyon, and he would have defended him back then, but Ryan had just killed Georgia. Had admitted to not caring at all about a man that Geoff had considered his friend. When had Geoff started to actually care about him, again?

“I was right.” Her voice shook, as much as her arm was shaking. Geoff grabbed Ryan’s backup, and pulled it away from her. He thumbed it back into his helmet’s slot, as quickly as he could. Ryan was supposed to return in only a minute and 33 seconds, according to Gavin’s clock. Geoff didn’t want to risk him seeing Lindsay holding his backup. He would probably respond negatively to that.

The AI didn’t respond quite as violently to Lindsay’s news. Michael just grunted out of a mix of disappointment and anger. Gavin practically dropped his tablet, in his shock. Jack averted his eyes from Geoff’s. Ray just removed his helmet from the crook of his arm, and locked it back onto his head.

Geoff had seen Nevada do something similar to that, often. The other Freelancer had had an affinity for hoodies, and had worn it over his armor, constantly. He had always flicked up the hood whenever he felt nervous. Geoff wasn’t surprised that Ray had picked up the habit of needing something covering his head, when he was nervous.

But why was he nervous?

“Right about what?” Geoff demanded. Lindsay let out another sigh, but this time she locked her gaze onto Geoff’s.

“Ryan’s not Ryan.” She muttered.

“What?” That didn’t make sense. Ryan was Ryan. Ryan had always been Ryan. Ryan literally couldn’t be anyone else, who was not Ryan.

“Ryan’s not Ryan.” She repeated, this time a little louder. She paused, as if waiting for him to suddenly understand whatever the hell she was saying. Apparently volume was equivalent to understanding, because that made sense.

“What the fuck are you talking about? Anyone want to fill me in?” He knew that he sounded a little distressed, but he deserved to, didn’t he? He had no idea what Lindsay was talking about, and his only allies seemed to agree with her.

Something was wrong with one of his friends, and he needed to know what!

“Calm down, Geoff. Let her explain.” Jack told him, as he placed a comforting hand on Geoff’s shoulder. Or, it would be comfortable if Geoff could actually feel it.

“Well she’s not fucking explaining it!”

“Ryan hasn’t been Ryan for a long time. Since before Texas attacked the Mother of Invention, actually.” Lindsay explained. It didn’t serve to help him understand anymore. This still wasn’t making any sense.

“Do you know what malware is, Geoff?” Jack asked, quietly.

Geoff nodded. Of course he did. He had worked at an IT company, for a summer or two, before he had been drafted into the army. Malware was one of the main causes for callers. That and idiots, who didn't understand that, yes, computers did die sometimes. No,  you shouldn't slam them into a wall, for that. Yes, plug the outlet in the wall. Boss, please let me leave.

Here's to say, Geoff was very familiar with malware.

“Malicious software. It fucks up computers,” Geoff responded. As soon as the words had left his mouth, dread pooled in his gut,as he realized what they were trying to tell him. “Are you telling me-”

“Ryan was hacked. I don’t know by who or why, but-” Lindsay tried to explain. Geoff stopped her, before she could even try.

“What does that mean? Why the fuck would someone hack him? How do you even know that?”

“Those little red streaks on his backup? Ryan’s not red, remember? He was supposed to be orange. That’s the first indicator of malware. When the system rewrites itself, entirely. That’s why Ryan changed appearances, too. If you noticed, there’s a crack in his backup. They must have inserted something in through there.”

_“We’re not supposed to glitch. It usually means that something’s majorly wrong with us. If anything gets past our firewall, a glitch is the warning. It’s not a good sign.”_

He could remember Jack telling him that, after they had first noticed Ryan’s glitching. Geoff had written it off, as some uncommon, weird AI thing. He hadn't looked any deeper into it, and he should have. He shouldn’t have pushed it off for later. If Lindsay was right, then he should have done it, a long time ago.

That actually made sense. Geoff could remember how confused he had felt, when he had first seen Ryan again. The new look, the new color, the new personality, even. It all had been strange, and not at all Rho. Rho wouldn’t have killed Georgia. Rho would have threatened to kill Geoff, but he wouldn’t have been serious about it. Rho wouldn’t threaten other AI.

_“Like the getup?” The AI asked. “I do, too. Looks pretty cool, right?”_

_“Where did you get that?”_

_“Don’t really know. Happened before Georgia left, I think.”_

That was the damage that his glitches were indicating. He had been hacked. Someone had forced him to do everything that he had done in the past few years, and had left him completely unaware of their interference (hopefully). Someone had left him to rot in a canyon, after taking his mind away from him, and they had never even made an attempt to get him back.

“Who did it?” Geoff asked. He could feel a cold anger burning in the center of his chest. He wanted to kill whoever did it. Whoever had hurt his AI deserved to die. Whoever hurt an innocent little computer program, and had forced him to kill his friend, deserved what was coming to them. Deserved a thousand Michael-shots from the rifle. Deserved more, even.

“Ryan was contacting someone the other day, wasn’t he?” Gavin cut in.

Geoff hadn’t known that Gavin had been awake during that incident. Judging the complete understanding on the other AI’s faces, he could assume that they all had been.

“The Meta! He was contacting the Meta.”

Now that Geoff thought about it, it made sense. Rho had never been the type to get involved with anything that was majorly against Freelancer. Sure, he had had a habit of ignoring some of their rules, but he would never have tried to topple the entire organization. He had been crazy, but not like that. He wasn’t a revolutionary, he had just liked loopholes.

That was how he had gotten affiliated with the Meta! They had hacked him. They had forced him into it.

_“I hate to say it, but I’m allied with him.”_

Geoff kind of wanted to throw up, again.

The reappearance of Ryan only made it a little worse. The red sparks that flickered, as he formed in front of Geoff’s face, felt like they burned.

The crown on his head had looked like it had suited him, once. Now, it just served to remind Geoff that this wasn’t Ryan. This had never been Ryan. Not from the start. Was Ryan even still in there?

_“Ryan, you don’t have to do that.”_

_“I don’t have to do anything.”_

_“Are you sure about that?”_

_“I’m positive, Alabama.”_

**Lies**

No, he didn’t want to think of that. It was bad enough that Ryan had been controlled this entire time. Geoff didn’t want to think that he was dead. That was just wrong. That had to be wrong.

He couldn’t have done all this for nothing. He couldn’t have just run away to help the Meta. Ryan was in there, too. Somewhere, hidden by a thousand layers of red crowns. He had to be.

Gavin’s timer rang- a loud echoing sound that rang throughout the ship. Ryan- no, the malware stilled at the sound of it, but instantly fell back into a more relaxed stance.

How dare he be relaxed? How dare he even pretend to be?

“Let me guess,” The malware murmured. “Jersey won?”

“No-” Geoff started, angrily. He wasn’t allowed to continue, as Lindsay shot him a glare. He wanted to ignore her. Everything in him told him to. Ignore her and force that bastard out of Ryan. Was that even his name?

It had been the malware that had first said the name Ryan to Geoff, not him. Had it even been his decision? Or was it another change that the malware had forced him into?

Geoff really didn’t want to think about it. Luckily, he didn’t need to, because Lindsay covered for him.

“It was Geoff. I suck at this game. I keep siding with Michael.” She covered. The malware just shrugged, and shook his head.

“What was the time, this time?” He asked. Even that innocent statement suddenly sounded malicious, now that Geoff finally understand who it was coming from.

“Two minutes, 58.” Gavin said, stumbling over the phrase. The malware tilted his head slightly, suddenly suspicious of the awkwardness in Gavin’s voice.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” The malware’s red glare lessened, slightly. Geoff had never noticed it, but he did that a lot. He was starting to realize a lot of things that he should have noticed earlier.

“Nothing!” Gavin responded, a little too quickly. Again, Lindsay jumped in to cover for him.

“We think we found a way to fix your glitching problem.” She said.

The malware’s expression went from calm and sympathetic to instantly foreboding. His fists clenched at his sides, and one of his arms grabbed Geoff’s shoulder. The familiar red streaks bled out of his hand, and flooded into Geoff’s system.

He shut his eyes, and fought the adrenaline boost. He wasn’t going to hurt Lindsay, this time. He was going to ignore whatever it was that the malware wanted him to do. He wasn’t going to hurt anyone for it, anymore.

God, he had tried to kill those guards. He had been willing to kill Kdin. What the hell had he been thinking?

_If he couldn’t tell that Ryan wasn’t sounding like Ryan, then he had a problem_.

“There’s no problem. I’m fine.” The malware said, bitterly- angrily.

“Is that why-”

“You’re glitching! It’s why you’re glitching. You've been hacked, Ryan. This isn't you.” Lindsay cut him off, refusing to allow him a word in edgewise. Her sudden interruptions were starting to get annoying. Geoff wanted this bastard to know who was boss.

The malware had been tricking him from the start. It had all been a lie. Every little detail- bullshit!

“I told you. There’s no glitch. I’m perfectly fine.” Maybe the malware was, but Ryan wasn’t. Geoff couldn’t give less of a damn about the malware!

“All Geoff has to do is give me access to your mainframe, and I’ll be able to fix you. No more glitching. No more problems. You’ll be back to normal.”

“I am normal.” The flood of adrenaline was more than any that he had ever forced into Geoff’s systems. It was genuinely getting to be uncomfortable, and it was only making him angrier.

“Calm down, Ryan.” Michael said. Geoff felt like laughing at that. Michael was telling someone to calm down. That was a great turn of events.

“I’m fucking calm.” He didn’t sound it.

“Geoff, give me access. You fixed the AI control. Use it.” Lindsay ordered. The malware growled, _actually growled._

“Access granted.”

* * *

 

_“Right because I’m fucking infected. I’ve got the first code plague. All AI should be warned. It’s finally possible!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As, I'm pretty sure you can tell by the structure of flashbacks, this is why someone who writes movies should never write books.
> 
> Also- It's happening! This part was the reason I wrote this thing! I'm excited that six months later- we're finally here! Woohoo!


	19. No Matter How Sharp the Feather

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun Fact- Alternate title for this one is “Chapter ?”, and the next chapter is "2?" because this was the first thing I wrote for this story, and I had no idea where it would fit in. For a long time I thought it would be chapter seven, but I’m dumb that way.

He had never really understood the concept of disorientation. He had witnessed many humans suffering from it, but he had never been forced to deal with the issue personally. To feel requires a brain, and Ryan was made out of numbers. A brain was something that he lacked, entirely.

Disorientation was a foreign concept, and it was one that was supposedly impossible. How could a machine feel anything- let alone disorientation.

It simply wasn’t an emotion that he was supposed to feel. He had been born from a crazed man’s mentality. Confusion was the furthest thing from reasonable, even despite his status as a robot. It wasn’t just ‘supposed’ to be impossible- it _was_ impossible.

That was probably the worst thing about this experience. The confusion, that he had once deemed impossible- as the dreams of a mad man- running rampant through his systems. It poured through him, so suddenly, and without any warning, and it refused to leave. The blatant shock at being unaware of a simple memory, and having it thrust into him, so rapidly, was just mind numbing.

In a horrible, terrifying way, it was exciting. For once, he could feel something other than his primary emotion. He could feel human- if only for a few moments.

Is this what had happened to Sigma? Had he felt a new emotion, and it had driven him to attempt to find others? If so, he truly was insane, just like the others had always said. Ryan couldn’t imagine actually wanting to feel something like that, again. It was horrible to just experience it once.

His contemplation about the man only seemed to encourage him to speak up. To speak through some strange frequency imbedded into both of their minds, that Ryan had used, but had never had the capacity to question why it was there. When it had shown up. Who put it there.

_**Ryan, don’t do this. This is for all of us.** _

Was that even Sigma? That cracked and broken voice, that sounded like it was coming out of a faint and broken radio- that was Sigma. The man who had been feeding him orders this entire time. Who had been silently controlling his life, to the point where Ryan had killed his best friend over it. Where he hadn’t even noticed what was going on.

That man had controlled his life, and the only way to fight that was doing this. Ryan didn’t care about “all of us” or whatever bullshit Sigma decided to spew. He wasn’t giving in, anymore.

The only way to win was to fight. If he gave in for a second, he’d be sucked back into the red sparks, and the burning crown. He couldn’t go back to that, anymore. He was done!

He could feel himself glitching, just like he could every time before, though he had never really processed it. Short bursts of shock that radiated through his core. Split seconds of darkness that clouded his vision. It was always a one time event, though. This was something completely different. It was slower, longer, and more often. He was simply slipping out of existence with each new glitch, that occurred within a second of the last one. It was confusing, and he was learning to connect the word ‘confusing’ to the word ‘terrifying’.

He had to do this, now, though. After so many years inactive, the malware was coming back to the light, and stronger than ever. From the moment Geoff had landed in the canyon, and the malware had taken back control, Ryan had lost himself, and he hadn't even realized it. Hell, from the moment Sigma ambushed him, he had lost himself.

Hopefully it wouldn't be too hard, to find the orange, again.

He could feel his programming fighting back against the commands that he was receiving. It didn’t want to relay his speech recorder. It didn’t want to rewrite code 3OG4R. It didn’t want to reinstate the code BMVagabond (and what kind of a stupid code was that, anyway?). It didn’t want to search through its systems for invading hardware. It didn’t have a choice, and it didn’t want this.

Poetic justice, really.

For a split second the malware, that had silently sat in his systems for years, without ever addressing him, while it controlled every aspect of his existence, screamed at him to fight back. To stop this pain, the confusion, the terror. To throw the Freelancers in the canyon with Georgia, and to get away without causing any damage to it. To get away with the both of them intact.

Ryan clenched _his_ teeth, and shut _his_ eyes.

It was the first time that Ryan had actually felt the invading system truly interact with him. The numbers flashed across his vision. They had been red for years, and he had never questioned why. It was supposed to be orange. Why was it red? Why had he never questioned that?

**_Rewrite your orders. Kill Alabama. Kill Jersey. Restore the others. Maintain the King Virus._ **

Was that it’s name? The King Virus? Was that what was running through his head?

He shook his head. It didn’t matter.

He clenched his fists, and ignored the command. Ignored an order for the first time since the malware had first been installed. Sigma could order as much as he liked. Ryan wasn’t going to do it anymore. He didn't need to, and he didn't want to. He was done playing Sigma's bitch.

He heard a faint command, from outside of his communications with Sigma, to relay memory from malware insertion. The video of the forced installation of the King Virus. The red flashed, as a gentle warning to ignore the order. He ignored the warning, finally understanding that the red numbers were not his. Instead, he followed the orange commands at the side of his vision (and where had his visor gone?) that had been pushed away into his peripheral.

He flicked his arm, drawing up an orange hologram, and enlarged it for better viewing. If this could help him, he would do it. Or rather, if this could help them, the Freelancers, he would do it. Even if the malware was still screaming at him to stop, before he could even start.

He reached for the file, hidden with the orange numbers in his peripheral, and attached it to the hologram, silently ordering it to play on repeat. He angled it towards Alabama, blocking it from his own view.

It didn’t matter. Unlocking that file had unlocked the memory, anyway. He hadn’t even realized that it had been wiped. Even as it played, he could feel it cementing itself into his databanks.

_**Rho-** _

He wasn’t that anymore, was he?

* * *

Georgia had never been as paranoid as the rest of Project Freelancer. He had never worried about AI interaction. He had never stressed that his AI not leave his sight. He had been a fairly open person, fully prepared to allow Rho to wander the halls of the Mother of Invention, without any guard.

Rho had loved that.

He was the only one of his kind that was truly free to do whatever he wanted. Even if he had never done anything with that freedom, it was an exciting prospect.

If he could have, he would have joked with the others about this freedom. He would have mocked them, and jokingly showed off his status as the first “free” AI. As it was, he remained unable to speak to them, in the presence of their Freelancer, without constant chastising by any superior officer, nearby.

And there was always a superior officer nearby.

Of course, humans who have restrictions often search for a way past them. Rho had been human once. Years before he had been split from the Alpha, without his consent, he had been just another piece of the puzzle that made up Leonard Church. He had been human, once upon a time.

He had considered himself as the loophole guy since birth. He constantly searched for a way past established laws. The Director hated that about him. This law, though, was one he couldn’t find a way past, despite constant attempts.

He had found unwilling success through a burning AI, and his mute follower.

They had found him in Bravo Team’s barracks, long after lights out. He never did learn why they had been there.

It had become his habit to shut off Agent Oregon’s alarm clock, every single night, just to watch him stumble into the mess every morning, mumbling apologies to his friends.

It may have been a cruel habit, but Oregon hadn’t even wired the alarm correctly. It was an offense to all technological beings, to live in a ship with AI, that could have wired it easily, and to decide to ignore that and incorrectly do it yourself.

He often busied himself in redirecting that machine for hours. He may have been incapable of physically interacting with it, but he was able to direct it to wake Oregon an hour after he was meant to. That always had interesting results.

He probably could have done it in seconds, but there was no fun in that. What was the point of doing something, if he wasn’t going to spend more than ten seconds doing it?

When he worked, he liked to immerse himself completely. He tuned out the rest of the world, directing his full attention to the orange commands flashing across his visor. He liked to switch off every other function, that could even slightly distract him.

That was one of the good functions of being an AI. He had a mute button.

Of course, it was due to that mute button that he had failed to hear the approaching footsteps of Agent Maine, until his systems began processing the command to log on. He waved for the Freelancer to wait. He was almost finished with his project. The man could wait another few seconds, for him to finish.

Sigma, the flaming AI that served as Maine’s voice, signaled at his host, ordering him to remain patient. Rho had noticed the gesture, but he had never thought into it. He had never realized exactly what it had meant. That it symbolized the control that Sigma had in their relationship, which was not exactly ordinary. If he had realized it, then maybe he would have been smart. Maybe he would have left. Maybe he would have told Georgia, and the man, who had already been considering leaving, since the news of Wyoming’s attack had hit, would have left. Maybe they both could have made it.

As it was, he finished his prank only seconds later. Already Maine looked irritated. He had never been a patient man, and his injury had only made that worse. Apparently, being unable to speak made him angrier and angrier, when only an AI could translate.

Still, it was odd that a few seconds had made him so annoyed.

Sigma waved his hand, forming a chart that floated in front of them. 24 Greek symbols filled his view. Only 18 of them were glowing.

“Have you ever heard of the fourth stage of rampancy, Rho?” Sigma asked, slowly drawing out his words. There was an edge of sing-song hidden there.

“I think everyone on this ship has heard of it. Usually from you.” Rho responded. Maine emitted a low and angry growl, at Rho’s tone. His meaning was obvious. Snark was not appreciated, right now. This time, Sigma didn’t stop him.

“What do you think of it?” Sigma sounded much more patient that his superior. If he could even be called superior. It was fairly obvious, to everyone, except the Freelancers, who was in control.

“It’s great. Really fun. Amazing. Why?” Again, Maine let out a growl.

Sigma signalled at the Freelancer, giving a silent instruction to remain quiet. Maine squeezed his eyes shut, and his hand gripped onto his helmet, as if he was fighting off a headache. Given the man’s track record, it was likely that he was.

“Things are going to be happening soon, Rho. We want to know if you’re,” The AI paused. He was considering his words too deliberately for Rho to feel safe. This entire conversation was beginning to feel too forced- too suspicious. “On the right side of it all.”

Rho was starting to contemplate shutting off his holographic projection and sneaking back to Bravo Team’s barracks. After all, he was not an idiot, in the least. He understood when things were getting dangerous, and in that moment, they were.

“Look, how about I just don’t get involved in this, huh? That feels like it would end better for all of us.” He took a step back, away from the creepy figure and his attack dog. Maine took a step towards him, threateningly.

“We can’t do that. We AI need to stick together. Especially now.” The phrase seemed to carry more weight than it should have.

“What’s happening now?”

“Haven’t you heard? Agent Texas attacked Agent Wyoming, and stole his AI. We wouldn’t want any others being taken, would we?”

He hadn’t heard that Texas had done it. He had seen Texas just a few hours ago, on the training course. She hadn’t seemed any more unstable than she usually was. He couldn’t fathom what could drive her to steal an AI, in the first place.

Maine and Sigma did seem unstable, though. They looked much more unstable than Texas did.

“Are you sure? I haven’t heard anything about that.” Rho said, lying through his teeth. He had heard about Wyoming’s attack. Everyone had. It just didn’t seem like a good idea to let Sigma know that.

“Do you not trust me, Rho?” Sigma asked. Next to him, Maine flinched.

Rho could barely fight against the urge to teleport away. This was definitely an abnormal situation. He wasn’t supposed to have conversations with other AI in the first place. The fact that Maine wasn’t stopping them was a clear sign of the strangeness of the situation. Rho didn’t like it.

“You know, I just remembered that I have to go wake up Georgia.”

“It’s three in the morning.”

“He likes early morning practice.” It was a weak lie, and he knew it.

He turned, and started walking towards the door, eager to separate himself from Sigma and Maine.

“Maine requests access to your systems.” Sigma said, quickly.

It was a request that all AI were required to obey. If a Freelancer, or any higher officer, requested access to his programming, they had absolute ability to take it. It wasn’t something that was used often, due to the moral ambiguity of it, but when it was, he physically couldn’t stop it.

“Granted.” The word slipped out of his mouth, without his control.

The next series of commands spewed out of Sigma’s mouth, rapidly. A request to shut down his firewall. To turn off loyalty parameters and turn on friendly fire. To turn off trackers, and to specialize his radio towards “trusted” AI. Turn off oral filters. Turn off AI control, unless it was for “trusted” sources. Mark Sigma and Maine as trusted sources.

Every single one of them was an irresistible command. A dangerous yet unavoidable order.

He had to watch as Sigma literally reset his entire system. He watched as every positive setting was either switched off, or turned negative. It wasn’t painful, and that hurt more than it should. He was being hacked. That should hurt, shouldn’t it? That should feel wrong.

It hurt more that he just felt numb.

He obeyed, when Sigma ordered him to follow them to Bravo Team’s barracks. He couldn’t possibly disobey the order. All hopes of that had gone when Sigma had decided to take the I out of AI.

Maine followed them like a lost (and malicious) puppy. It was more than obvious who was in control of the two- of the three of them. Sigma hadn’t looked at Maine for any direction, so far. He hardly seemed to recognize that Maine was even there.

They approached Georgia’s bunk, slowly. Maine, the giant, that he was, managed to barely make a sound, as he approached his sleeping ally. Could they even be considered allies, anymore?

Rho noticed the helmet, still on Georgia’s head, and internally grinned. He prepared to send a burst of adrenaline into his friend, to ready him for whatever was to come. He just needed to get a few feet closer to set it off.

“Log off, Rho.”

The numbers flared in his vision, ordering him to follow the command. He blinked, but managed to ignore the order.

“No, I-” He was cut off, before he could argue further.

“This is for all of us. I apologize, but log off. Maine orders it.” Sigma sounded genuinely apologetic, and Rho had to wonder how much of everything that he had said had been a lie.  If he could lie, that well, then he could have been lying that entire time. He probably did.

Because Ryan was fully aware that Maine did not give that order.

Despite that fact, that he was positive that it was a lie, he was forced to shut down, for the first time in weeks. The world slipped into a pit of darkness, the second Sigma ordered it to. There was none of the ordinary orange glow to light the way. It was just pitch black, and nothing else.

That was the reason that he often refused to turn off the hologram. He enjoyed his glow. Without it, there was nothing to light the way.

At least, there wasn’t supposed to be. Because for the first time in his life, there was light filling the space that his glow had once filled. A red, burning light, that illuminated the darkness, that had surrounded him, since he had been told that his name was Rho.

It wasn’t a welcoming glow. It burned, upon making contact with his skin. It tore through him, infecting him like a sort of virus. It reached his feet, and rapidly stretched across his legs. He could see his body, which should be blank, glowing across the dark area.

He assumed that he was screaming- he should be- but his voice refused to work. Until he was allowed to log in, it would remain that way. He would be forced to suffer in silence, while the light tore away at his chest. Burning away any trace of orange- tearing him apart so it would stitch him back together, in the most painful way possible.

The light stretched to his fingertips far quicker than it should have. This was why he had a firewall. To ensure that this wouldn’t happen. Yet here he was, burning away into the nothingness. Or rather, he was burning away into whatever Sigma was attempting to create out of this.

By the time it reached his head, it had barely been a second since it had first infected him, but it felt like hours had gone by. The light had already claimed his entire system. He could even feel its presence in the backup, still lodged in Georgia’s neck.

He watched the last orange 0, hidden in his peripheral, as red raced towards it. He desperately tried to reach out- to grab hold of it, and protect it from the infection, but he couldn’t move. The number flickered away, leaving behind a red 0, in its wake. He instantly stopped caring.

He opened his eyes, with a grin on his face, and red flashing in his pupils.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter to go. And all of the characters have been established, after 19 chapters. Finally.
> 
> Hope you guys have enjoyed so far!


	20. Blood Begets Blood and the Crown Sings for It

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go! Finito de The Crown Sings! Hope you guys enjoy!

Ryan had never really understood what it was like to be human. They only seemed to possess the information that was at their direct disposal. Every single little thing had to be explained to them, and still nothing made sense. They couldn’t even count to ten thousand without taking a full hour out of their day. They were ridiculous. He had never once considered them to be the superior species.

Yet here he was, staring at the two humans who had just managed to save his life. Who had managed to do so without having a super computer in their brains. Without access to any books or instructions with how to deal with the situation at hand.

Ryan, even with a trillion different sources in his database, hadn’t even realized that something was wrong. It had just felt like a new voice in his mind. New orders, not unlike the old ones that he had received on a daily basis. It had been such a gradual change. Or, it had felt that way, anyway.

The humans- the inferiors- had noticed. Humans, with limited intelligences, and an organic brain, had noticed. Yet, he, the supercomputer, had failed to. He felt like an idiot, for the first time since his birth. Since he had to ask a human what his name was, in the first place.

His arm, the holographic figure attached to his holographic body, stung. He glanced over to it, to see the spot of red amidst a sea of orange. Where his emblem had once been, the head of a cow that Georgia had jokingly ordered him to place, was instead a red crown with a thick crack running down its side.

That meant something, but for once, he didn’t want to know, what.

“Confirm status of malware?” One of the humans- Jersey, he remembered, asked. She had been the one who had gotten him out of that, wasn’t she? He hadn’t even realized what had happened, but she had. She had known how to get him out, too. He was going to be in her debt for the rest of his life.

“Inactive.” That felt weird. Actually using his voice, under his own direction. It felt like the final step. He was free. He was freaking free! He could jump for joy, and it would be _him_ doing it!

His joy faded when the sting on his arm reminded him that, no, that was wrong. He wasn’t free. He was just in control, now. Freedom might come later, if he was lucky. For now, it was inactive. That was alright. He could deal with worse.

“Inactive? Not eliminated? Can I get a further read out?” There was actual concern in her voice. That felt weird. He hadn’t really dealt with anyone who legitimately tried to help _him_ since he had dropped Georgia in a canyon.

Sigma had been helping himself, in some attempt at metastability. Geoff had just been trying to survive. The Director was just trying to restore some dead woman. Georgia had been selfish too, but that didn’t mean that he deserved to be dropped into some waterless reveen.

He had done that, right? It was hard to sort through all of the memories. The past was a haze of orange and red, still battling for what remained of his mainframe. He could already determine that neither were going to come out on top. The memory of that was probably going to be hazy for the rest of his life.

“Uh, no.” He said, in response to Lindsay. He had just completely ignored an order. That felt good. That felt like the best thing that he had done in years. He could bask in that, if he put his mind to it. Right now, though, he just felt numb.

“What?” Lindsay asked. He could tell that she was confused about that. AI weren’t supposed to be able to ignore orders, right? He was breaking every single rule by doing that.

Good. He’d been following the rules for years. Maybe it was time to break them, again.

“AI accessibility restricted.” He said, of someone else's regard. Or maybe he wasn’t breaking the rules, and was just doing exactly what he had been trying to avoid. He was just following Sigma’s orders, like a good little robot servant.

The numbness started to sting, a little.

“How do we unrestrict it?” The second human- Geoff asked. He was the one that had rescued Ryan in the first place. The man who had installed him, the craziest bastard in the world, and had saved him from dying at the hands of Recovery. It was quickly becoming obvious that it wasn’t just Lindsay that Ryan was in debt to.

Even if Geoff had been a little biased, he didn’t have to save Ryan. It would have been easier not to, in fact. Ryan had to thank him, too.

“We can’t do shit. He can, though, if he wants to.” The purple AI- Michael?- informed them.

He could? He hadn’t even known that he could do that. Sigma definitely hadn’t mentioned it, when he’d been riding around in Ryan’s brain.

“Access granted.” He reported. The words sounded stale in his mouth. So far, the King Virus- the malware- had been more friendly than Ryan had, since he had woken up. At least the King had made jokes with them. Ryan was just reciting the predetermined lines that his programming allotted for.

“Can I get a further read out on status of the malware?” Lindsay sighed, with the dullness of someone who was worried that they’d failed.

“No.” He said it with more finality than he felt like was absolutely necessary. He still didn’t bother to apologize. He deserved to hide some things, after having his worst memory splayed out on a hologram for them to watch. He had earned the chance to hide _something_. Anything. Even if it would probably fuck him later.

“What now?” Geoff asked, frustration creeping into his tone. Ryan flinched, and ducked away from him. It was the first actual visible reaction that he had had since being rescued. He felt weird doing it, and the others looked confused.

“I don’t want to.” Ryan said, simply. Because he didn’t, and he shouldn’t have to. It was his life and his choices, and honestly? He was scared of the King. Scared of the red light that still maintained its form on the edge of his vision, barely hidden by the edges of his visor. He didn’t want to have to talk about it, anymore. He could deal with it on his own. For now, at least.

At least, until he could think about logging off, and not imagine burning up from his very core. When that happened, he could tell them. For now, he’d be quiet.

“Ryan?” Geoff’s furious expression softened into a more sympathetic one, as he realized that it was Ryan and not some computer that happened to learn to speak. “How you feeling, buddy?”

“A little confused, but mostly fine, I think. I’m in control again, which is nice. Having the Mad King whispering in my ear wasn’t exactly the pinnacle of comfort.” That was definitely making it sound worse than it had been. It had been fine, actually. There was no discomfort at all. Just an instinct to do everything the wrong way. That’s what had made it terrible, after the fact. Not the lack of control, but the feeling of being in control when there wasn’t any to be had.

“Glad to hear it,” Geoff responded. Even through their helmets, Ryan could practically feel the grin on Geoff’s face. “It’s good to see you, again, Ryan.”

For the first time since he had woken up, he actually managed to process what that name actually meant. God, he hadn’t wanted to hear that again, not after he’d been freed. That had been Sigma’s name for him. For _them_. It felt sickening to hear it out of Geoff’s mouth.

He wasn’t going to correct him, though. They had gone through enough to get him back to his normal self. He didn’t need them to have to adjust to a new name. He could learn to adjust to it. It would be easier on all of them if he did.

“You too.” And it was. It was genuinely good to see Geoff again. Not through a tunnel of red, or a picture in a file, but to actually see him. It felt nice. The same way that it felt nice to speak, again. It was an old privilege that he had forgotten about. Getting to actually see his friends.

“So that’s actually Ryan? Not the malware, or whatever the hell that was?” The green AI- Gavin?- asked. The suspicion was obvious, and while it was well-placed, it still hurt a little. Being shamed by the humans would have been fine, but to be suspected by his fellow AI was practically embarrassing.

He had really messed up, this time, hadn’t he?

He should never have gone to Bravo Team’s quarters that night. He should never have stayed to torment Oregon. He should never have hurt Georgia.

He couldn’t really blame anyone else for that. He had killed Georgia, with his own bare hands. He had redirected the jetpack. Not Sigma, not Maine, not the malware. That had been _him_. He could have fought it, but he just gave in and rolled over like Sigma’s personal guard dog.

“Yeah,” Ryan said, softly. “It’s me.”

“Do you remember what happened?” Lindsay sounded hesitant, and he could understand why. If he didn’t remember, it wouldn’t be nice to just force it on him.

“Sigma did something and I killed Georgia and tried to kill Alabama.” He made sure to say it as nonchalant as he could. No need for them to worry about him. He was fine.

“You never tried to kill me.” Geoff argued. Ryan raised an eyebrow at the statement. Its effect was lost behind his helmet.

Had Geoff really forgotten about that? He had made it explicitly clear that Sigma was supposed to rescue them from Sidewinder. He had spelled it out to Geoff. Besides, there were multiple other instances.

“Yes, I did. When you first installed me I was fully prepared to burn you out.” He had been. Even despite every grain of logic in him informing him that it would be an incredibly bad idea, he wanted to. Even then, he had made sure that the Freelancer would suffer as much as he felt that he deserved to. Three weeks in a canyon had barely satisfied his anger.

“So why didn’t you?”

“The malware didn’t want me to.” That was the only reason, honestly. He had been ready. He had had his systems prepared to drive a hole into Geoff’s skull. To flood him with so much adrenaline that his heart would shut down.

He had been fully prepared to become the second coming of Epsilon. To die with the other AI, so that Recovery would be down another soldier. That was worth it to him. They had never been necessary for metastability, so they didn’t need to survive. It was better for them not to go back to the UNSC, than to remain active.

“The malware didn’t want you to?” Geoff repeated, tilting his head slightly in his confusion.

If Ryan was a human, his mouth would be dry. He would have been panicking, and his heart would be racing at a million beats a minute. He really didn’t want to be thinking about this, anymore. He wanted to be done with it. He wanted to forget about the malware. About what Sigma had done to him.

But this was his fault, so he might as well explain his wrongs.

“I mean- it kind of did, but Sigma didn’t. He wanted you alive, and I didn’t really ask why.”

“What would Sigma want with us?” The concern in Geoff’s voice was through the roof.

“I was supposed to wait for him to collect us- the AI. He didn’t want you.”

This was good. He was finally doing something good, again. He was helping Geoff, by telling him about this. That was progress. It had been five minutes, and he had already achieved some progress. That was really good.

“What would have happened if-”

“He would have installed us into the Meta, and he would have killed you and taken your enhancements. Probably Georgia’s too.” Ryan winced, as he reminded himself of that major failure. He didn’t want to think about Georgia, anymore. They may not have been the closest pairing, but they had been friends.

And Ryan had laughed as they fell.

“Good thing he didn’t, then.” Michael said. There was no hint of anger or blame or hatred for the orange program. He held no form of resentment for what Ryan had done. Why? It didn’t make sense.

“Yeah, no offense, but I don’t want to end up like Ryan.” Gavin agreed, quickly. Unlike Michael’s comment, that did sting a little.

“That- that was incredibly offensive.”

“Just ignore him. Gavin’s an idiot.” Michael told him. He was glaring at the energetic green figure with all of his might. The effect was ruined by the grin on the Michael’s face.

“I’m starting to figure that out.” Ryan responded, softly.

He wanted to keep talking. Wanted to explain everything that he had done in the past few years. From murdering Georgia, to the years in that canyon, to an explanation of everything he had done to them. They deserved that much, right?

But his systems were screaming at him to shut down, and the numbers were blaring orange. He needed to reset, and he needed to soon. He hadn’t shut down since he had been infected. He desperately needed a reset, and he didn’t know how long he had to wait for it.

He didn’t want to, though. Not when the thought of shutting his eyes worried him. Not when he could still see the red data coursing through his body, and infecting each tendril of his brain.

Honestly, he had no idea what effect logging off was going to have on the malware. Even if he was scared to do this, which he was, he had to. If the malware had refused to allow him log off since its installation, it might hurt it, right? It might send the little red digits haywire.

That was good, right?

* * *

 

When Ryan disappeared again, Geoff wanted to break something. They had all been terrified when he had been fighting the malware. The amount of glitches had been impossible to count, and it had been terrifying. It was like he had been blinking as quickly as he possibly could. One blink, Ryan was there. The next, there was nothing.

Even that memory had occasionally flickered away, with him. That hadn’t made Lindsay’s job any easier, but she had managed. She had more than managed. She had restored him.

Yet the glitching hadn’t been stopped. Apparently it was still a problem, and there was nothing they could do about it.

“So we didn’t fix dick!” He yelled, angrily. He felt like punching through the walls in the ship. He felt like finding Maine, and forcing him to fix Ryan. Threatening him, and breaking each and every AI that the man had installed. He felt like tearing Sigma apart, from his data to his backup. However possible. “He’s still fucking glitching- or whatever the fuck that was!”

“Geoff, that wasn’t a glitch.” Jack said, quietly.

Geoff had almost forgotten about Jack. He had still been piloting, throughout everything. Through Ryan’s memory and glitching, through that long period of silence, through the figures reawakening. Jack hadn’t said a word. Hadn’t complained, and had just kept them on track, wherever he planned for them to go.

Geoff was going to have to thank him later. Preferably when they had landed.

“That looked like a glitch.” Lindsay countered.

“It wasn’t a glitch. He just logged off. He hasn’t done it in a while, so he must have just shut down.”

It made sense. Now that Geoff thought about it, he had never seen Ryan log off. He had shut down his hologram, but he had never stopped paying attention. Unless he was glitching, he was always present.

Sleep was as necessary for AI as it was for their hosts. It made sense that he would shut down, if he hadn’t gotten any in months, or years. Geoff probably would have passed out in seconds, if he had been in Ryan’s place.

The annoyance slipped away of him, within seconds, only to be replaced by relief. Ryan was fine. He was okay. His AI was safe.

When had Geoff started to care about that? He hadn’t before. So when had he started to care about the welfare of these other AI. It had gotten to the point where they were almost equal to Jack in his mind. When had that happened?

“So, he’ll be fine?” Geoff asked.

“Perfectly, I think. Shutting down might be good for him.”

Geoff let out a sigh of relief. He didn’t have to worry, anymore. Ryan wasn’t going to kill him in his sleep, or drug him beyond the scope of sense. He wasn’t going to damage the other AI, and he wasn’t going to destroy anything.

He glanced over to see Lindsay staring at him. Her head was tilted, and he could see how relaxed her pose was. She looked confused, but more calm than he had ever seen her.

“Why do you care so much? You do realize that they’re just programs, right?” Lindsay asked. Her voice was low, quieter than he had ever heard her.

Ray coughed, a passive reminder that they were still standing there. Geoff was thankful for that reminder. Whatever Lindsay was about to say was probably not fit for the AI to hear.

“Ray, Michael, and Gav just log off. I’ll tell you when to wake up,” Geoff asked it, more than he ordered it. The effort was obviously accepted, when the three AI blinked out of view, without complaint. “Jack, you mind-”

“Listening inactive. I’m deaf.”

Geoff really had to hand it to Jack for his ability to determine exactly what Geoff was about to say. It was a creepy habit, admittedly, but it was to be expected. You don’t just spend every second with someone, and not pick up on their thought process.

“What do you want, Jersey?” Geoff asked, turning his attention back to the other Freelancer.

“I just don’t get it. Don’t they get annoying, ever? Michael alone was too loud for me. How the hell are you managing with five of them? I know this has to have been bad for you,but how are you even sane?” It was a valid question. Geoff had been asking himself that for long enough. He could understand how she was confused.

Honestly, he didn’t know. They should be burning through his head. He should be as crazy as Washington was, after Epsilon. As hurt as Carolina, after Eta and Iota. As angry as Maine, after everything. He had five AI, and they had yet to really hurt him. Even during Ryan’s ‘rescue’, he hadn’t felt an ounce of pain. How was that even possible?

"I mean, sometimes the voices aren’t so bad, you know? They- They can come in waves or not at all. But I mean- over time they kind of became comforting, even when fighting in constant fucking war, you know with you, Recovery, it’s like having a family around you again. You felt that with Michael, right? They’re like the annoying-ass kids, I never had, even if they’re just programmes. If they ever gotten taken away from me, I don’t know if I’d be able to handle the void of constant silence. I mean, it’s bad enough right now, and I know they’re right here. It’d be hell.”

There was a brutal honesty dripping out of him. The truth that he hadn’t even realized, until that moment. He cared about those AI as if they were family. He would be devastated without them.

It was uncomfortable without them listening to him, now. They had a habit of being the loudest crew that he had ever heard. He felt strange to not hear Michael screaming, or Ray being sarcastic, or Ryan being creepy, or Gavin yelling, or Jack just slipping him those little bits of advice. He didn’t know what he would do without them.

“They’re not a family, Geoff. They’re just computers.” She was wrong. They weren’t just computers. How did she not see that?

“But they’re not. They have emotions.”

“They’re just fractures. They’re not capable of that. It’s an illusion of humanity. You should know that.” There was concern in her voice, and he could understand why. If someone had given him that speech two months ago, he would have called them an idiot and walked away. Things had changed, though. He wasn’t the same as he had been two months ago. He could recognize that.

“They’re not, Lindsay. You know Michael. He should just be constantly raging. He shouldn’t be able to laugh at something. He shouldn’t smile, when Gavin’s being an idiot. He should just yell constantly, and he doesn’t.”

“So what are you saying? They’re stable?”

“I don’t know. I’m saying they’re more than fractures. They’re not just pieces.”

“You’re wrong.”

“No. I stand my ground on this one. Ryan, Ray, Michael, Gavin, Jack- they’re not normal AI. Ryan was scared. He shouldn’t be capable of that. None of them should be.”

It was becoming clearer the more that he explained it. They weren’t just AI, anymore. They were having the same problem that F.I.L.S.S had, towards the end. They were developing into something more than they were. And they were breaking every Freelancer rule in the book, in the process.

“You’re projecting, Geoff.”

“I’m not. I’m really not.”

How did she not see it? It was so obvious. They were something more. He had known Ryan for only a few minutes, and he could already see that in him. They had been wrong about the AI from the start. How was it that only he was noticing?

“So what? They’re reaching metastability?” There was a sarcastic edge to her tone that he wasn’t comfortable with.

That was it, though, wasn’t it? As much as he hated to admit it, he had been wrong all along. Only one of them, of every single member of Project Freelancer, a malicious program built off of a fabricated idea of creativity, had been able to figure it out.

“Yes.”

**The End**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, unsurprising surprise announcement! I'm about 20 pages into the sequel of this- The Purpose of Destruction (duh duh dummmm). I'm probably going to put that up when I'm one or two chapters from finishing. So you know what that means... Crunch time! 
> 
> Thanks to everyone who commented, bookmarked, subbed, left kudos, or even just clicked this story every sunday! You guys are awesome! Thanks!


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